APR 2020
4315 W. Lovers Lane, Suite A, Dallas, TX 75209 | 1900 W. Illinois Avenue, Suite 101, Midland, TX 79701 www.buttonlawfirm.com | 214-888-2216 HOT-BUTTON ISSUES
WHAT’S IN A PHOTO?
My dad has this photograph of my great grandfather and my grandfather sitting on a ledge up on Button Hill in Pennsylvania, where his family is from. It’s a black and white photo, and it shows my grandfather and great grandfather gazing out at the land and taking it in. To me, this picture represents not only the history of our family but also the way we pass something down through generations. The way my grandfather and great grandfather are sitting and gazing out at the land makes me think about me and my dad and our favorite pastimes. We like to go hunting and fishing and just be outdoors where we can sit, think, and talk, taking in our surroundings and just existing. The photo is a good reminder of the beautiful things that can happen when life slows down. It’s a matter of cultivating that environment and being in the moment, and a photograph tells a story about that moment. When it comes to the work we do at BLF, we’re able to represent our clients through photos. In our cases, it often comes down to what a person or family was like before a traumatic event happened. Who were they before this happened to them, and what did they love to do? It’s so telling when you walk into someone’s house and see the photos they choose to hang up. You can see that they love to travel, that family and friends are really important to them, or that their dog is their whole world. It’s a natural part of what we do as humans — we look around for visual representations that tell stories about people’s lives. When I meet with a client for their case, I often ask them to share some photos from their phone or some of the pictures they have hanging up at home because those tell me so much about who this person is and who they were before their injury. Sometimes people are less confident or more shy after their injury, and seeing a photo is enough to know this change is brought about by what happened to them. Often, I’ll ask people to tell me about the photos. Where were you in this one? How often do you go here? Have you been there since the collision? Do you miss it? Did you love to travel before you were injured? It all starts visually, and it’s a big part of what we do.
Injuries that have caused visible scars or deformities need to be represented through a timeline of photos to show how the victim has progressed and how the scars remain. Often, I notice that people who’ve been through life-altering events take fewer photos over time because of what happened to them, whether due to the burden they feel physically, emotionally, or as is most often the case, both. So, in addition to looking for photos, we also look for missing photos, the ones a person didn’t take because they don’t want to document their scars. When you walk into someone’s house, you realize the lasting impact of these events. Photos tell a story, and it’s why we came up with the idea for a client photo wall. Our clients become part of the BLF family, and we want to honor that with photos of the people we’ve been fortunate enough to work with. Have you ever looked at a photo and been transported right back to that moment, that point in your life, when the photo was taken? I’m excited to have our client wall up for this reason: so we can represent each of our clients and be reminded on a daily basis of their story and how we got to help them make it whole again.
–Russell Button
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