There are everyday heroes and
extraordinary stories in everyone, but some are often underappreciated or
underrepresented. This inspired me to profile a woman in a career traditionally
considered for men. I wanted to address the stereotypes associated with a
female firefighter and show the reality of the job.
I contacted the fire department
headquarters and informed them about my idea. Once I established Dawn as my
subject, I did a focus group to gather data on what type of stereotypes people
in San Antonio had on female firefighters.
At any time, Dawn and her all male
crew could get a call and have to rush off to fight a fire or respond to an
emergency. My biggest challenge was that I wasn’t able to spend big blocks of
time with her, because of the unique nature of her job. Instead, I would mostly
get pieces of her day and then edit it together to make it fit into an entire
picture.
My ambition is to bring about
change, starting one story at a time. I want to give a voice to the people and
stories that haven’t yet had theirs heard.
