A couple months back I received an email asking me what my day rate was for a full day photo shoot. Normally I would send a reply with my rates and we would start from there but after thinking it over for a little while I decided to reply back with a “I’ll do it for free.”

Normally this would sound crazy and absurd but this situation was different, it was for Hope House here in Kansas City. Hope House is Missouri’s largest domestic violence shelter and provides programs and services that include outreach therapy, court advocacy, a safe visitation center, on-call women’s advocates who work with area police departments, social workers and prevention programs in area schools. I decided to shoot this pro bono because it would help the organization by giving them photos that they needed and it would allow me to donate my time and talent in a unique way.

I knew going into this shoot that it was going to be tough to hear some of the stories and accounts of the people who deal with this type of thing on a daily basis but I needed to get past that and make this look as real as possible. (All of these photos were set up and we did not use any victims in the photos.) We shot a couple different situations from a woman who was a rape victim and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (S.A.N.E.,) homeless patient receiving an AIDS test, human trafficking in the forms of prostitution and child labor and a couple shots inside a chapel.

I will be sure to add examples of what Hope House uses these images in future blog post.

I hope that the work I did on this shoot will help someone out and will shed light onto those who didn’t know about all of the horrible things that happen each day to all of the victims.

Thanks for checking this out, Kansas City Photographer Aaron Lindberg