October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a worldwide annual campaign to highlight the importance of breast awareness, education and research. For some, October is the only month of the year when we think about breast cancer. For others, it’s something faced on a daily basis. That is the situation for photographer Joe Hoddinott and his partner Jess McIntern (not her real last name). For the past four years, Joe has been photographing Jess underwater. It’s been a personal passion. Something they have done to create for themselves. In March 2016, Jess was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite the obvious issues, Jess wanted to continue these under photography sessions throughout her treatment. DIYP got in touch with Joe to find out more about them and the project.

It’s a feeling many working photographers have. There’s just never seems to be enough time to pursue your own personal work. Even if you can find the time, it can sometimes be difficult to find the motivation. Play feels too much like work, and sometimes the last thing you want to do is pick up your camera.

The trick, I’ve found with personal photography work, to be able to separate it from paid work, is to do something completely different. Find something you’re passionate about that you don’t do for clients. For me, it’s working with film. For Joe, well…

After putting out a casting call to do photo shoot, Joe was met by a response from Jess. Joe, a recently divorced father coming to terms with his new life, was rebooting his photography career, and this was one of those personal projects he’d promised himself. Several models arrived for the shoot, but when Jess walked in the door, “it was complete love at first sight”. At least, it was for him. Up until that point, he’d been happy being alone and focusing on his work. The moment he met Jess, that all changed. He immediately knew that she was the one.

As photographers, we always talk about “getting out of our comfort zone” and pushing ourselves to try something different and new. Only a few of us ever actually do it, but when you do, you really start to fall in love with photography all over again.

Since then, photographing underwater has become our summertime ritual. We learned a lot by evolving our methods year after year and we did it on our own. Just her and I making art for ourselves and answering to no one else. Jess is my best friend, my partner in life, my love and my photographic muse. We spoke with Joe about the equipment he uses to shoot underwater, which was surprisingly modest. Most of the underwater projects we see today use far more expensive gear, with housings costing more than the camera itself. So, it’s refreshing to see such fantastic images with such relatively inexpensive equipment. It’s an older camera with limited resolution by today’s standards, but the RAW files hold up very well to post processing and they print beautifully. Underwater, the image is magnified approximately 30%. Over the years of photographing underwater, I found that I like using a 24mm focal length. Given the risk of my partially compromised housing I opted for using the consumer grade Nikon 24-85 f/3.5-4.5 VR lens, which focused well underwater and at f/8, performed impressively.

One of the issues with wireless signals is that they tend not to work so well underwater. Anybody who’s ever tried to make a radio controlled submarine will testify to that, which is why many of them come with a tethered floating antenna. Joe told us about his lighting gear, and his choice of radio triggers.

For the light itself, I needed light to be above the water and safety needed to come first. I opted to use an old set of Novatron pack lights where the heads are separate from the power pack which is plugged into a GFI. The lighter heads allowed me to create a stable rigging to hold the lights above the water and tether everything off for added security. Taking the weight away from the light source itself makes a lot of sense on location, but especially so when suspended over water. Aside from the other difficulties of photographing subjects underwater, colour is always a potential issue. Joe told us about his post processing, and how he overcame these challenges.

Shooting with the light in different positions or with my subject at different distances from the camera yields a slightly different result in color so from there the WB slider along with the HSL tool is enough to dial in and get pleasing color in a mostly neutral image. I chose to do my toning and color grading in Photoshop along with any retouching that is required. Like many personal projects and new things we try, it’s a technique that develops over time. As you learn what you like and don’t like, what works and what doesn’t. On March 8th, 2016, at the age of 28, Jess was diagnosed with Stage 1, triple positive invasive mammary carcinoma. She would need chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, in addition to countless doctor visits, tests, procedures and other medications along the way. It didn’t take long for people in and out of the local art community to start to identify us with these underwater photos we were making. Our local paper, several blogs and internet magazines wrote articles and featured our work. The attention was very welcome, but it was always secondary. This art was for us and I was truly a lucky photographer to have such a muse and to be able to keep my promise to myself.

Understandably, for Joe, the last thing on his mind was photography, or making them with her. But for Jess, it was a different story. She decided that she wanted to photograph throughout her treatment as much as possible. Mor specifically, she wanted to continue the underwater photography sessions. For most couples, a photo shoot would be out of the ordinary. For Joe and Jess, it was their normalcy. Jess needed that to continue in her life with every other crazy thing that was going on.

I’m convinced that this desperate need to maintain a small sense of normalcy and that decision to press on with our underwater project helped us survive her taxing treatment.

These underwater photos of what people imagined what should be a bedridden, frail girl were exactly the opposite of that. She looks beautiful, not sick. She looks strong, not emaciated. She looks in control, not like a victim. That’s who Jess is. That is what it’s like to Fight Like Jess. Jess has now completed chemotherapy and is recovering from a lumpectomy and a lymph node biopsy. She starts a 6 week radiation regimen this month, and all of us at DIYP are keeping her and Joe in our thoughts. To honor breast cancer awareness month, ‘Hold Your Breath’ gallery show opens at The Delaware Contemporary on Friday October 7th in Wilmington, DE. Helping other people, raising awareness and generating funds toward research are a part of our future. All proceeds from sales of any of these images go toward Jess’ continuing recovery and charity organizations of her choice. Joe Hoddinott and Jess McIntern, (no, that’s not her real last name,) are collectively known as ‘J-Squared’ and live together in Delaware, USA. You can find out more about Joe on his website and Facebook or contact him through Twitter. You can read about Jess and her fight on her blog or reach out to her through Twitter. All images Copyright Joe Hoddinott and used with permission.