CurePSP Family Conference
At a educational conference, we created family and individual portraits of PSP patients and their loved ones.
Client: CurePSP Sponsor: UCB Pharma
Venue: Embassy Suites, Raleigh, North Carolina Mobile Studio Dimensions: 10’ x 10 x 10
Guests: 100+ Sessions: 60
Booking Duration: 5 Hours
Equipment: 2 Nikon D800 camera bodies, Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 mm lens, Profoto lighting equipment, social media kiosk, printing station, editing bay, video hub, router, , mobile hotspot, PA system & headsets, iPad for guest sign-in.
Jonsar Personnel: 2 photographers, 2 editors, 1 guest experience coordinator
THE STORY
In collaboration with CurePSP, a nonprofit company providing support and information for patients and their families suffering from prime of life neurodegeneration diseases, Jonsar Studios created family and individual portraits of patients suffering from PSP and related diseases.
THE EVENT
The annual family conference in Raleigh North Carolina, was an opportunity for people to learn more about the disease PSP and to develop a sense of community. In addition to the educational aspects of the conference, Jonsar’s portrait experiences provided moments for attendees to forget their struggles and come together as families, couples or to just feel better about themselves as individuals. Sponsored by UCB Pharma, the positive effect of our photography experience was palpable. The impact of seeing folks who entered feeling downtrodden and hopeless and left with a smile on their faces was inspiring. Often there was not a dry eye in the room.
An 8 hour drive from NYC, the conference center at Embassy Suites, Raleigh, provided a seamless venue for our activation. Ample overhead clearance and spacious meeting rooms offered plenty of room for maneuvering wheelchairs, canes, crutches and a variety of other mobility devices. We chose an elegant, simple black backdrop to so that there was minimal distraction from the subjects. Our GIFs and moving portraits streamed live to a series of 75” LCD’s within the conference rooms located adjacent to our mobile studio. This inspired conference attendees to participate in the photo experience during breaks.
A Jonsar Studios team member with an H4n handheld recorder interviewed patients and their caregivers to discuss their personal journeys learning to live with PSP. We later transcribed the interviews and composited them with the portraits.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
“Working with Jonsar Studios was fantastic! From a business perspective they were extremely easy to work with and then onsite they were a dream. The amount of compassion and empathy they showed to our patients with rare neurological disorders (PSP, CBD, and MSA) and their families were more than I ever could have hoped for. They were able to capture these micro-expressions on our patients’ faces I don’t think any other photo studio would have been able to. They truly were a photo experience!”
“The Jonsar Studios team was highly professional, very passionate and caring. There was an immediate connection between the photographers, the conference attendees, the patients, and caregivers. ”
“Thank you for doing such an amazing job capturing the essence and spirit of these families! These are such sensitive portraits and you were able to put humanity into the faces of these families and patients dealing with this challenging disease.”
“ We cannot thank you enough — we were very fortunate to be photographed by you and your team at the CurePSP conference. You made us feel like Rock Stars and that feeling will stay with us always!””
“You made the day special for so many people. It was wonderful to see the joy in the faces of the caregivers and patients. You capture such memorable moments. The video display captured so much that is left unsaid. Truly wonderful.”