Please enter your email and website or LinkedIn to receive more information about our free and paid accounts.
Please enter your email address below and we’ll send you instructions on how to change your password.
To the knowledge of the average person, neonatal organ donation is impossible. And although it’s rare, with just 21 donors less than 1 week old between 2008-2013, it’s actually growing in popularity. In May of 2012, Ohio native Deanna Slifka and her family helped to shed light on this rare procedure after her baby girl was stillborn. Although Dianna was surprised to receive the call about neonatal donation, she thought twice about it and then simply said, “yes.”
Deanna is quoted in an NBC story shot by Cleveland-based director and photographer Ricky Rhodes: “Obviously, it was the worst moment of my life, but I knew there had to be more of her life than 39 weeks inside of me. She held not just the potential to save another baby, but to save another parent as well.”
Below, the Slifka family’s oldest daughter, Isabella, looks at photos of her baby sister, Sofia, in the family photo album.
Ricky photographed the family in their home, saying “it’s always a challenge to photograph children and ‘regular people’ who aren’t necessarily used to having their photo taken in this capacity.”
To overcome this, Ricky spent time with the subjects beforehand, talking about their story and building a sense of comfort. Isabella didn’t want her picture taken at all at first, and by the end of the shoot she couldn’t get enough of the camera.
The family is happy with the story, and although the process is extremely difficult they are optimistic about the situation.
Ricky said that the shoot developed his patience as a photographer:
I think a good image can be made quickly but you never know what will happen if you just stick around and let things develop naturally. This is when you can capture your subjects’ personality. The Slifka’s were great people who I genuinely enjoyed spending the day with and NBC News was great in just trusting me to come back with great images on my first assignment for them.