47 | 100 star children
Stefanie Gundacker is an amateur photographer with passion. She has been with the DSK Photographers Association since 2019 and has had an amazing number of assignments in a short time. "Never before have I experienced so much love, dignity and tenderness, all concentrated in one room and people who brought me so close to their personal story. Photographing the goodbyes has changed me, absolutely. I've become much more grateful for all that I have."
The first and last picture
I was attending a concert with my husband when my alarm app made my phone vibrate. At first I didn't want to react at all, after all it was a concert evening, however my heart beats for my honorary office as a star child photographer and so I wanted to at least check where a photographer was needed. There was a boy due to be born that night whose heart had stopped beating at that moment, for no reason, just like that. So for the parents the world just collapsed. I reported in our forum and shared that I could take over that night. Early in the morning, I think it was around 3:00 a.m., Ian Gabriel was born and I made my way to the hospital I knew well. So there I met Ian and his mom Bettina. She held her eagerly awaited son in her arms and I remember exactly how much love and sadness was in the room. Bettina spoke of an endless emptiness. This situation was simply not comprehensible for her, unreal and yet she knew exactly: she has only this single moment, these few hours to get to know, to accept, to understand and to let go. Every star child whose first and last picture I am allowed to take leaves behind memories, an empty space and deeply saddened parents, siblings and grandparents. Since there is often nothing else left of the children, I try to create magical memories. Against forgetting, for those that remain. The fear of parents that they will forget the face of their star child someday, I can take from them. In memory of Ian Gabriel. It was my honor to take your first and your last picture.
Stefanie Gundacker
Stefanie Gundacker
Stefanie Gundacker
