Into the Deep End
Sometimes the job is just to see where the story is and put it in front of the camera. That sounds straight-forward enough, the challenge is dealing with the differing expectations of the subject. This is the story of Ali Truwit and her path to the Paris Paralymics.
Truwit loved to swim and was on the Yale team for a number of her college years. Shortly after graduating in 2023, she visited Turks and Caicos with a friend, and while snorkeling off a boat was attacked by a shark. She lost the bottom half of her left leg.
After six months of anguish and confusion the 23-year-old found direction when she started training with Jaime Barone, her childhood coach, with an eye towards the 2024 Paralympic Games.
We are drawn to narratives with inherent obstacles and conflicts, especially when they live within one person. The story of a young woman who enters the water to swim competitively after losing part of a leg to a shark attack is difficult to top. Yet Ali and her family had not fully come to grips with her new reality. Even as she was preparing to compete in the paralympics they were reluctant to show her left leg without a flesh-colored prosthetic attached. What happens when the subject does not accepted who they are, and that blindspot is also the crux of your story?
The paradox of portrait photography is that the best pictures are made when you can dispense of the feelings of the subject in front of you. When that subject is still suffering trauma from a shark attack, the temptation to treat them gingerly is attractive.
I have often said that my biggest fear is that a sitter will be bold and daring in front of my camera and I won’t be ready for it. This session is a variation on that. When the subject arrives with a fantastic story, my job is to get out of the way and just present it.
Ali Truwit turned a tragedy into an inspiring story of focus and perseverance; I was determined to tell this powerful story, and that included her truncated leg. Not shying away from who she fully was in this moment struck me as the most respectful approach.
Top Image: Photographing Ali Truwit in her family swimming pool, Darien, CT. Photo by Sophia Pallwein-Prettner.
Second Image: Truwit poses in their infinity pool.
Bottom Image: A graceful poolside moment with Ali Truwit.