October 2015

Stephen Yorke

About the artist: 

“I have been involved with Pulse as a web developer and technology advisor since Pulse’s inception in 2008, and I’ve greatly enjoyed working with the Pulse team. Although ignorant of the narrative medicine movement until working with Paul Gross, Diane Guernsey and others, I have come to understand the important role that narrative, art and image play in humanizing health care. Indeed, reading the stories and poems, seeing the images, and reading the haiku over the past seven years was important in helping me to provide care and comfort to my elderly father in the last few years of his life.”

About the artwork:

“Towards the end of a brilliant end-of-summer day, I ran across this solitary dragonfly seemingly sunning itself on a branch overhanging the water’s edge of Glenwood Lake in New Rochelle, NY, where I live. I was struck by its serene, contempletive

Paul Helzer

About the artist: 

Paul Helzer received his MFA at Hunter College in New York. As an optic artist, he examines qualities of peripheral experiences. Since becoming a full-time cinematographer, he has travelled globally as a director of photography on documentary, narrative and commercial projects. He and his wife and business partner, Alana, live in Bolinas, CA.

About the artwork:

“This image of grass was taken using a camera obscura (‘dark room’ in Latin). The image a camera obscura projects is reversed and upside-down, which  was true of this image before being digitally corrected. Only the center is in focus. The topsy-turvyness of this image-making process reflects the experience my wife and I have had with the healthcare system in trying to have a baby. We’ve felt upside-down and backwards, uncertain of what the future holds. It’s frustrating that the system which seems to offer us a solution

submitted by Sarah Stumbar

About the series: 

“From August through December 2013, as part of a social medicine project I met with a group of four teenage girls in the third-floor conference room of a Bronx family health center. Over healthy snacks we discussed topics relevant to growing up as a girl in this Bronx community: obesity, violence, exercise, access to green spaces, relationships, body image and sexuality–complex issues which gave them an opportunity to voice their dreams for themselves and their community. Each girl was given a disposable camera and asked to take photographs of her neighborhood. This photograph is one of these. The collective voice of these young women teaches us that, even in deserted streets and playgrounds, they are able to find beauty and hope. They remind us of the importance of giving all young people a voice as a way of fostering their growth and resiliency.”

About the artwork:

Through Our Eyes #5 (Deserted Streets) Read More »