Father Joseph Peek

As my friend Virginia and I almost said simultaneously, Father Peek just makes the rest of us look like a bunch of whiners when we talk about our everyday problems. I’m just starting a portrait project for The Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University’s Win The Fight 5K run. Of my first subjects was this amazingly strong and resilient man, Father Joseph Peek, a suburban Atlanta spiritual leader and former athlete and Navy Rescue Swimmer who was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2002 shortly after his ordination. Father Peek received a bone marrow transplant in 2003 that saved his life, but the new immune system from the transplant shortly set off a chain of fights within his body. The condition known as graft-versus-host-disease ravages Peek’s entire body and requires daily wound dressing changes, but it hasn’t deterred his strength and resolve to minister to the sick. This year will mark the second time Father Peek has participated in  the Winship 5K.

I chose to photograph Peek and the rest the survivors using a Nikon D7000 with a 17-55 f2.8 AFS Nikkor lens, set on manual exposure 1/250th of a second at f5.6 on flash white balance, using one shoot through umbrella and white reflector with a Nikon SU-800 Speedlight Commander unit triggering a Nikon SB-800 strobe set at 1/4 power in SU-4 mode on a black background for maximum Rembrandt effect to put maximum emphasis on the subject. Image © Chris Hunt 2012

For more of the portrait series go here.