Many of my clients are doing incredible work, not just in terms of design, but also making a huge impact in our communities. Earlier this year I had the chance to work with St. Joseph’s Villa, in Richmond. SJV is a huge campus dedicated to working with children who have “developmental disabilities, diverse learning styles, mental health issues, homelessness and other challenges.”
SJV recently completed their new Sarah Dooley Center for Autism and, along with Odell Architects and Daniel & Co., hired me to photograph the finished product.
SJV will be using the photos to help support their fundraising efforts. It is very important for them to have high-quality photos that clearly show how well the staff at SJV, and the building itself, support their students.
SJV’s staff and I worked hard to duplicate some of the key renderings.
This shot was particularly challenging, because it had to be taken from the front doorway - with very little room to spare. It’s a panoramic shot including about 15 different images stitched together.
One of the biggest challenges for this shoot was coordinating with the staff on “models.” The new building is not open to students yet, so there wasn’t anyone in the building. The SJV staff worked hard to stick to a schedule - based on our scout day and shot list - to have a variety of students come from different buildings at different times to model in most of the photos.
Most of the students and staff had not seen the space - so, as you can imagine, there was a lot of excitement.
We had to be patient with the kids, but they had to be even more patient with us! As you can see, they did an awesome job. Thanks so much to the staff at St. Joseph’s Villa!
