Maurice Henri strongly believes the power of a camera’s lens can help heal wounds.
Henri is the founder of Cameras for Healing, a Moncton-based, not-for-profit organization that helps people experiencing trauma, grief, and stress cope through photography.
“The stories, I could go on and on and on about the stories through the years we’ve heard, it would make your skin crawl. This is happening in our communities,” said Henri.
His latest project, Images of the Heart, is on display at the Moncton Public Library until the end of October.
The twelve-week program was a journey of healing that combined younger women from a past project with seven older women, all of whom have been through traumatic experiences.
Henri described it as the wisdom of age coming together with the energy and curiosity of youth.
“A serious connection of camaraderie if you will and they really understand each other and it’s a very powerful thing when we see them they come together,” said Henri.
Henri got the inspiration to help people in his hometown of Moncton in 2006 after he had travelled to Africa the year before on an extended photo shoot.
While in Sierra Leone, he took powerful images of war and former child soldiers.
The haunting images won him awards and inspired him to help others when he returned home.
An early project saw him working with kids from a boys and girls club.
“We’re dealing with extreme poverty, violence at home, drug addiction, things like that. Bullying at school. To just build self esteem and self worth through the image so the camera becomes their voice,” he said.
Dianne Robichaud-Murphy is a participant in the Images of the Heart project.
She was robbed at gunpoint three times in one year when she worked at a bank in the 1980s.
The trauma from decades ago still lingers, but she was able to forget the world when focusing on her photos.
“I would look through the lens, focus on that and worry about nothing else,’ said Robichaud-Murphy.
The result: Three photos on display at the exhibition and a huge sense of pride in her work.
“I had no idea that we were going to be doing this at the end of the project,” she said. “I was a little nervous about what my photos were going to look like. When I came in and I saw my photos I was extremely proud.”
And there’s also pride with her group.
“That’s basically what the whole project was. A whole bunch of individuals with different experiences and how we all came together and we were all helping one another and working together with the common goal of healing,” said Robichaud-Murphy.
Henri said 50 per cent of the sales from the exhibition will go to the photographers and with the women’s blessings, the other 50 per cent will go to his next project so he can help more people deal with trauma.
