intweetion:

kaeldra-1:rainwhisker:spenacethemenace:

jacindamagnolia:

Echolilia

All parents love their children. But what do you do when you can’t connect with them? In my case, I started making photographs of, and with, my son Elijah, who has autism spectrum disorder. This series—the title is from “echolalia,” a clinical term for the mimicking aspect of his condition—shows the bridges we’ve built on our shared journey of wonder, discovery, and understanding.

We began this project when Eli was five. He was doing well at school but fixating on odd things, lashing out, speaking repetitively. My wife and I couldn’t figure him out. Then I started taking pictures of him around the house. It was an instinctive act for a photographer: Point your camera at something in order to make sense of it. But a curious thing happened. As I documented what Eli was doing and creating, he became interested in the images I was making. I was learning how he thinks; he was learning what I like and value.

We soon had a system. Eli would do something unusual, one of us would notice, and we’d make a photo of it together. The pictures we took over three years were more raw and feral than anything I’d done as an editorial or advertising photographer. And more personal. This is, after all, the story of a father and his son.

Timothy Archibald’s book, Echolilia: Sometimes I Wonder, was published last year by Echo Press. See more of his work at timothyarchibald.com.

[This one made me cry. And happy.]

  • Reblogged from rudimick

  • January 10, 2012, 10:06am

          20,422 notes

Notes

  1. theworldiswhatever reblogged this from mischeifmanaged-alliswell
  2. maybeacontra reblogged this from fragilestability
  3. littlemissmisanthrope reblogged this from scumlungs
  4. breakoutflyfree reblogged this from fragilestability
  5. fragilestability reblogged this from itsonlyacrimeifyougetcaught
  6. itsonlyacrimeifyougetcaught reblogged this from graspreality
  7. savnevers reblogged this from drayskylar
  8. sab-nasty reblogged this from m0dernwaste
  9. tinyrentedspaces reblogged this from m0dernwaste
  10. justsaythewordsandillfadeaway reblogged this from troubl3s0me
  11. wittybeyondmeasure-ment reblogged this from drayskylar
  12. m0dernwaste reblogged this from scumlungs
  13. troubl3s0me reblogged this from drayskylar
  14. drayskylar reblogged this from octopus-arms
  15. murderedsoul reblogged this from scumlungs
  16. ddaarriia reblogged this from scumlungs
  17. coolbrotyrone reblogged this from grilledcheesegoddess
  18. c0mfortably-numb reblogged this from xxwhiteriotxx
  19. grilledcheesegoddess reblogged this from scumlungs
  20. graspreality reblogged this from you-wont-be-missed
  21. the-catqueen reblogged this from scumlungs
  22. xxwhiteriotxx reblogged this from scumlungs
  23. dumberthanadvertised reblogged this from octopus-arms