Richard Chavez is just like you and me. He has a job, he is part of a family, he is happy, he is sad, he is human. Most of all Richard Chavez is content.

He was born with brain damage in the form of Cerebal Pasly. This condition affects his speech and motor skills. Richard cannot walk without the support of someone helping hold his weight. His right hand can either be open or closed and is of limited use.

Though well into his fifties, Chavez posses the same fire in life the rest of his clan does. His family has a long tradition of stern and serious determination to do things their way. Richard, or "Dickie" as he is called, is no different. He is up at the crack of dawn every weekday to shower, shave and eat breakfast cooked by his mother Lucy.

After breakfast he is off to Lifequest, a place for him to work and socialize with other handicap people. In the afternoon, he does cleaning work at a local bank.

Always chewing every bite of food for all its worth, Richard Chavez is frequently the last one to leave the dinner table consuming every last bite and being served the largest amount. He loves to eat yet gains no weight!

What I found photographing "Dickie" is how both natural and supernatural his life is compared to everybody else. He lives and breathes like any other person, yet the supernatural quality of his existance lies in the powerful drive he has to live and get up to see every new day. He has a quiet acceptance of the world he lives in. He never complains. Never.

It is in this quality Richard Chavez has a lesson for us all. Chavez has the most reason to complain, yet it is he that finds his life so satifying and worth living, precisely becuase of what he has, not what he lacks.

Richard Chavez lives with his father Edward Chavez and his mother Lucy Chavez in Silver City, New Mexico.

Photographed Using:

Hasselblad 500 c/m 80mm f/2.8, Fuji Neopan 400

Nikon D2h 85mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 DX