An Ontario photographer is helping to make the dreams of children battling illness or debilitating conditions come to life through fantasy portraits.
Shawn Van Daele, co-owner and photographer for Renaissance Studios Photography in Guelph, Ont., creates whimsical photos of children acting out their favourite adventure.
Children from across North America will send Van Daele drawings of their ultimate fantasy: dancing in a land of candy, floating in space, or sailing the seas as a pirate. Van Daele will then conduct a photo shoot with the child, and incorporate one of the images into a more sophisticated version of the artwork.
Brothers Luke, 17, and Zane, 15, have both starred in Van Daele creations.
The brothers both live with dwarfism, a genetic disease that limits their mobility. Neither teenager will grow more than three feet tall, but Van Daele was able to depict them flying high above the ground -- Luke in a shiny blue convertible, and Zane riding a floating bike with yellow balloons.
The photographs made both boys laugh. “I like it a lot,” Luke said.
In another portrait, Keaton Reid, a three-year-old girl who has endured two years of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, is depicted as a mermaid along with her sister Mica. The pair couldn’t celebrate some birthdays together due to Keaton’s illness, so in the photo, the sisters celebrate their birthdays underwater.
“It was something that took them out of the life that they’ve been used to for the last year, and put them into a place where they could be happy again,” says Stephanie Reid, the girls’ mother.
The art project, called Drawing Hope, started a few years ago, when Van Daele drew a comical picture to cheer up his father, who was suffering from prostate cancer. He was then asked to do another drawing for a young girl coping with a heart transplant. She dreamed of riding a unicorn.
After creating the portrait, Van Daele said he was “hooked.”
“I said, ‘How can I not do this for the rest of my life,’” he told CTV News.
Van Daele said he tries to give the children a sense of freedom.
“To give them something they can always look at, to remind themselves of those dreams, no matter if times get tough or bad,” he said.
Van Daele is able to create the photographs free of charge with the help of supporters who donate to his charity, The Drawing Hope Project.
According to the website, Van Daele has completed 40 “magical” photo shoots, and now he has plans to incorporate the first 28 into a special storybook.
The proceeds from the book will be divided between groups and foundations that have supported the children in the photos.
“To see a child's imagination come to life … despite some horrible 'unawesome' situations -- it can't help but give you hope,” Van Daele says on his website.
With a report by CTV News Medical Specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
