following jasan

Even if we don’t think we have expectations about parenting before becoming a parent, well, we do. My guess is they stem from childhood. We can’t stop our brains from creating the vision of a similar upbringing or a completely different one than what we each experienced.
After my son was diagnosed with autism at age 4, I struggled with what life was going to look like. I knew nothing about autism at the time, except that it came with challenges. I felt so sad, almost as if I was mourning the life I thought I was going to have.
"Following Jasan" is a project I started in 2014 when my son was 5 years old. At that point, I had learned more about autism and how my son fit into that picture. I have dealt with bipolar disorder my entire life, and dangerous depression has seriously taken hold of me many times. Somehow, by a universal saving grace, instead of running down the road of depression with the gripping thoughts of an uncertain future, I opened my mind.
I changed my perspective on our mother-son relationship. Instead of comparing Jasan to the neurotypical children in the world, I completely embraced who HE is.
I didn't make a grand plan to start photographing him; it just happened as we would go do the eclectic things that he liked to do.
My iPhone camera became a tool to see how his beautiful brain works (and was also my art therapy, even though I didn’t look at it that way.) I have always had an artistic eye, and I fell in love with the process of creating stories through my photos. I started sharing pictures with short narrations on social media, and to my surprise, people were actually interested.
The thought process became, "If I can tell my story through images and words, maybe I can help change the negative perspective about autism, even if it is just one person's view." and that is when the blog began.

A passion of mine would be to have the opportunity to photograph other neurodiverse kids and adults. After 10 years (and counting) of documenting my son, I feel a strong connection to this topic.