Specialist photographer travels to Latvia to capture fantasy images of children with life-limiting conditions

Categories: Care, In The Media, and People & Places.

Photo by Guna Rubule, Kristine Zavele: Angela with Kristaps

Earlier this month, Angela Forker, well known photographer and founder of Precious Baby: Newborn Photography by Angela Forker paid a visit to Latvia at the invitation of the Latvian Children’s Palliative Care Society in Riga. Her mission – to take imaginative and beautiful photographs of 11 children with life-limiting illnesses.

Angela’s visit and the beautiful photos that she has created of these children have now become part of the ‘Bridges of Dreams‘ project. This project aims to build a multifunctional care centre “Dream Bridges” which will provide palliative care to the 600 families and children who need it in Latvia.

Anything is possible

Angela Forker

It all began back in January of this year when Dr Anda Jansone from the Children’s Palliative Care Society in Latvia saw Angela’s work online and together with Linda Zarovska, the organisation’s communications specialist, reached out to her through Facebook.  Posting pictures from Angela’s page on their organisation’s timeline, they wrote “Angela Forker we are thankful and excited about Your Precious Baby Project! We would be delighted to see you someday in Latvia and make these photos with our little patients and their families.” To which Angela responded: “Anything is Possible!”

At the end of May and beginning of June 2019 Angela and her husband endured an eventful and somewhat miraculous journey, which she relates on her Facebook page, to finally arrive in Latvia one day later than scheduled.

While there, Angela took photographs of 11 children with life limiting illnesses, creating magical backgrounds using her deep compassion for these children, creativity and imaginative props. The project was also featured on the national news and in newspapers and magazines in Latvia.

Speaking in an online video of her time spent in Riga, Angela reveals her hope that her work will change the way people see babies and children with special needs and says, “My heart is touched and my life is changed by this experience.”

This video, made by Green Media, shows Angela at work on the project.

 

Building of the multifunctional care centre

Inspired by these children, the Children’s Palliative Care Society has begun to create a multifunctional care centre  to provide special times and appropriate palliative care to children with life-limiting conditions and their families.

Launch of photo exhibition

At the beginning of September, the Children’s Palliative Care Society will launch a ‘Bridges of Dreams’ photo exhibition in Riga, Latvia. Until that time the photos that were taken will be kept a secret. There are also plants to take this exhibition around the world, starting with an exhibition at the 2nd Baltic Palliative Care Conference in mid-September 2019 in Lithuania.

Should anyone be interested in holding the exhibition in their country please contact Linda Zarovska by emailing her at lindazarovska@gmail.com.

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