Through Positive Exposure’s FRAME (Faces Redefining Medical Education) program, Rick is working with the medical community to re-craft ideas of what an appropriate image can be in a medical model.
Rick began his work on the FRAME project highlighting Marfan’s Syndrome, “I thought, as an artist, how can I present Marfan's Syndrome (with) all the information you need as a healthcare provider in training to identify Marfan's, but let’s add the most important, key ingredient which is missing in all these photographs: humanity.”
The reason for the FRAME project is simple, “Nobody, and this is across the board; nobody wants to be seen as a disease or diagnosis. We always want to be seen as a person, first and foremost. (We) also have an opportunity to see all of these great Ambassadors the way someone that loves them sees them: through the eyes of their mom or dad, through the eyes of their partners or their children or their siblings or their best friends.”
The FRAME project doesn’t end at still photographs, however. FRAME’s foundation is a series of short videos (around 10 minutes in length) that highlight the hallmarks of a disease or condition. The twist that makes these instructional videos more impactful than most: they’re told from the perspective of either someone living with (or a loved one of someone living with) a particular disease or condition.
The impact of these much more personal experiences cannot be overstated, “senior physicians have never even heard of some of these conditions before. But med students can get seven minutes where they can learn from Winnie, what these conditions are, and (they’re) going to remember it…They're going to be better healthcare providers because they saw these kids not in the clinical environment. They met these kids being kids. They met these kids not in crisis.”
Pearls Project:
Positive Exposure has taken the sentiment of the FRAME program one step further with a project simply titled, “Pearls.” It is clear that not only the medical community, but rather society at large, could benefit from a fuller understanding of each of its members. In collaboration with the Museum of Tolerance, Positive Exposure has facilitated an in-person/online hybrid educational opportunity for children and young adults so that people may begin to understand the differences among themselves.