A leg up: Dean took this picture during the Hearst photo shootout in San Francisco in 2004. He won second place.
Dean shot this picture during his summer internship at the Anchorage Daily News.
'Reason to live': Dean documented Hanna's life from June 2003 to February 2004.
Dean captured this image, of tsunami damage, during a recent trip to India.
By Jessica Strul
Daron Dean, JM 2004, prides himself on being as close to objective as possible. Among other cautionary steps, he avoids the voting booth and keeps his political preferences private. So it may be no surprise that, when he got close to a source, it made headlines as far away as Alaska.
The Anchorage Daily News ran a two-page feature story this summer about 13-year-old Hanna Peterson of Gainesville choosing, as her Children’s Wish Foundation trip, to visit Dean in Alaska during his internship.
When the wish-making organization contacted her last year, Hanna, who has since beaten Hodgkin’s Lymphoma into remission, could have picked meeting her favorite singer Avril Lavigne. But she chose a cruise to Alaska, to a large extent to be with Dean, who previously photographed her for the Gainesville Sun.
During the months he documented her battle with cancer for the Sun, their relationship became more like brother and sister than photographer and subject.
Their relationship is immediately evident. Dean, who plans to return to the Daily News this summer, wears her “rock star” leather bracelet; she hangs on to the back of his truck in protest when she wants to prolong their time together.
When he began documenting her fight, his mentor and teaching assistant for his beginning photojournalism class, Jen Sens, warned him about getting emotionally involved.
He knew he crossed that line when he watched a visitor accidentally rip out one of Hanna’s cords to the intravenous line. It turned out to be harmless saline solution, but Dean feared it was chemotherapy, which would have burned her skin.
“Throughout the whole ordeal, Hanna had no fear,” said Dean, who recently documented tsunami relief efforts in India. “If she wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t, so seeing fear in her eyes for the first time scared me and I thought, ‘This is serious, she can die.’ ”
‘How can you help being a human being?’
When he completed his Sun assignment, Dean felt it was okay to pursue the friendship that had already developed between them. It was an internal resolution, he said, but he did discuss the ethical ramifications with Sens.
“At first, I did think I was doing something wrong and unethical,” said Dean, who returns to the Daily News this summer. “But how can you help being a human being? Best friends are hard to come by; you’re lucky if you have one or two. I would do anything for them and I know they would do anything for me.”
His theory was put to the test after he fractured his skull, broke his sternum, ribs, thumb, nose and right scapula, and separated his left shoulder in a car accident on the way back from Alaska. His mother, Sherri Dean, fell asleep at the wheel at 3:30 a.m. Their Isuzu Trooper went off the road in Canada, flipped several times and came to rest on the driver’s side.
“I remember my mom screaming for help and banging on the horn,” Dean said. “It was like, Kill me now.”
Source of comfort: Photojournalist Daron Dean, JM 2004, got close to Hanna Peterson when he did a photo story about her battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma for the Gainesville Sun. (Photo by Liza Shurik)
The Petersons help Dean recover
Hanna and her mother Janet Peterson, who owns a Gainesville salon, helped steer Dean onto the road to recovery. When he returned to Gainesville after a week in a Canadian hospital, he needed help performing daily functions and detoxing from OxyContin, which doctors had prescribed him.
Janet drove him to and from Meridian Behavioral Healthcare’s detox facility. “While I was in there, she did all my laundry and cleaned my apartment, just like a mom would,” he said. “I was with crack-heads and prostitutes. It was three days, but it was the longest three days of my life.”
Dean suffered blackouts whenever he stood up or sat down. And he often felt dizzy.
“The depression was worse than the physical pain,” he said.
“You’re not happy, and you don’t ever think you will be again.”
Hanna helped Dean recover his happiness, he said.
“There were days I was just so terribly depressed, I would lie in bed and cry all day, and then I would go to her house and know if she can get through this, I can too,” Dean said. “She gave me a reason to live.”
He’s family, the Petersons said. They speak to his mom on the phone, and they hosted his graduation reception in December.
“I’ve always wanted a big brother. When I was going through treatments, seeing him gave me something to look forward to besides eating chocolate once a month,” said Hanna, who had a restricted diet. “I’m very attached to him.”
