Positive Exposure (Rick Guidotti)

In a thwarted attempt to make it to Plant Zero for the Shane Booth exhibition this weekend, (it closed before I got there) I stumbled upon a gallery within ArtWorks displaying a photographic series by Rick Guidotti. I later learned Guidotti was formerly a fashion photographer, but then went on to found Positive Exposure, a foundation to erase the stigma commonly accompanying children and adults with disabilities and diseases. The series at ArtWorks were portraits of mostly children, all with disabilities or diseases.
The children were displayed in their normal environments and shown doing things healthy children are pictured doing. This was seemingly the point of the series--to move away from picturing disabled children in a sad environment and a generally negative light. In this sense, the series really worked, in my opinion. I also think it was interesting that children pictured in certain groups based on their health issues did not all look the same or severely generalized. In fact, some of these children looked perfectly healthy, which is also important in breaking the stereotype that disabilities have to be hugely disfiguring. The series was very effective at shining a light of equality on children with health problems and disabilities.
I also think it was important that the portraits were not accompanied by narratives. I feel like the context behind the disability would only make the viewer feel sorry for the subject, by reinforcing that he or she was, in fact, different from a "normal" kid. This would have been counter-intuitive when Guidotti was portraying equality and a light-hearted portrait of a universal kid.
It's kind of funny I stumbled upon this work looking for Shane Booth's considering they both seem to be humanitarian in nature.