Photographer Transforms Bullied Boy Into Badass Joker
Few things are as heartbreaking as seeing a little kid get bullied. Despite all the attention that’s been paid to the issue over the past few years, kids will be kids, and social media hasn’t helped alleviate the situation.
Sometimes what it takes are adult advocates and a strong support network to help. Even better if one of those adults has some badass skills!
Lance Reis is a photographer in Portland, Oregon, and when his friend Andrea told him that her 8-year-old son was having trouble at school, he wanted to help the kid out. She wanted Lance to shoot some photos of her son, Race, with the Joker, his favorite comic book character. Lance does a lot of creative cosplay shoots, so he was happy to help.
But he did Race one better.
In his captions on Instagram, Lance explained the situation, and says that he asked Andrea, “what if we took it a step further and made HIM the Joker instead.”
“Seeing the pain in his eyes completely took me back to when I was his age and relentlessly bullied. That was the roughest time of my life and I’m devoted to impacting children who are bullied,” Lance wrote.
So he stepped in to help. Enlisting his Kickass Designs‘ crew of talented costumers and makeup artists, Lance transformed Race into The Dark Knight’s terrifying villain, and the images are a sight to behold.
Despite the amazingly intense look Race has in these photos, he was apparently having the time of his life throughout the photo shoot, which had been planned for a year but was rescheduled multiple times. Now the little boy is brimming with excitement about his photos, preparing to mount them in his room, and talking about getting into modeling.
Lance writes, “I would certainly say by the end of the photo shoot he walked a little taller smiled a bit bigger and held his head a little bit higher. I could see a shift in confidence from beginning to end. And that’s exactly what photography is all about isn’t it?”
“If I can give these kids even just a fraction of their confidence back and empower them through my photography I’ve done my job. As I told him and every child I’ve worked with, we can get past it and grow up to do great things. Look, now he easily has the coolest photos of anyone in his school, so suck it bullies.”
