Ok, here is the whole story! Might want some tissues.
Lynette Johnson spends most of her time at happy occasions - weddings, bar mitzvahs, family gatherings.
But an emerging part of her craft takes place away from the familiar smiles, during a family's most intimate and heart breaking moments.
Johnson is often summoned to the cold fluorescent lights of a hospital room to photograph young children, many of them newborns, who have days, maybe hours to live.
It's a pain almost impossible to imagine, but one familiar to Johnson's past.
"I had already photographed my niece who was stillborn before, and she was one of the inspirations that I would offer to other people so I was fully aware of what I would be dealing with," she said.
The developed images are haunting and beautiful. Precious lives never given a chance to flourish. But the pictures also clearly capture a parents unconditional love, and live on well after the body fails.
Colette and Erich Behrens rescheduled surgery for 15-month old Emily just so she could make this shoot.
Lynette Johnson
Josiah Adams was just 15 days old when he died.
Emily was diagnosed with leukemia at birth.
"I just kept saying no, because I just couldn't think anything was wrong with her, I mean I thought she was fine, but …" Colette Behrens said.
Even a bone marrow transplant from her sister Mianna wasn't enough to save her, and Emily most likely won't see her next birthday.
"My little brother died just about six months before Emily was born and it's been two years now and I can already start to feel the fading of the memories and the voice and things like that and just the more that we can have of Emily, I just think it will be better," said Erich Behrens.
Josiah Adams was deprived of oxygen during birth and lasted only 15 days, hardly enough time for his parents to process what was happening.
They nearly balked at the idea of pictures.
"I think I almost said no because it would be too emotional," said Josiah's mother Alice Adams.
But Alice and David Adams, now pregnant again, treasure the visual reminders of their first child.
"We look at them every day, Lynette's pictures, because they are so beautiful," she said.
"Sometimes I just get mesmerized by them because I love looking at them and what a beautiful baby he is."
Johnson accepts no payment for the photos. And when the call comes, she opens her schedule. Even on holidays. Even on her birthday. Spending time with babies like Emily is payment enough.
"I just know that I'm supposed to do it, and the rewards are just meeting these special families and knowing that they are going to have special memories because of these photographs."
Lynette Johnson hopes to one day start a foundation that will provide funding and photographers so that all families in these terrible moments will have the option of special portraits.
