![]() That was big for me.”īamba relaunched the project with a new goal – raising awareness of the prevalence of suicide among law enforcement and funding prevention efforts. “He was one of the first people I approached – can I take your photo? – and he said ‘Benny, I’ll break your camera.’ This smiling cop who everyone loves killed himself. They have to put on that face to let you know everything is OK.”īamba’s passion project took on new meaning 2013 when his friend, West Valley City police officer Michael Valdes, died by suicide. “They’re smiling a little or doing quirky things that they normally wouldn’t do for a posed picture. They’re not guarded anymore,” Bamba said. “When they relax and talk with you, they’ll adjust themselves – their body posture relaxes. It’s that genuine element that Bamba works to capture. “Where mostly the public sees us in bad settings, where it’s a crime that’s occurred … this is something we can smile, have fun with. Heatherlyn Lohrke of Salt Lake County’s Unified Police Department, told CNN affiliate KTVX. “It shows different sides of us,” one of Bamba’s subjects, Det. Everyone loves a firefighter, no one likes a cop,” Bamba said.īamba donates his time to provide keepsakes for law enforcement families KTVX “When you see portraits, you see how they treat other departments. He takes their portraits free of charge, because he says police officers are often overlooked. He has made it his mission to give back to those who give so much for their communities. ![]() Photography has always been a passion of his, so he began volunteering his time and talents to highlight the human side of those in law enforcement. “This woman was putting her life on the line and she didn’t have a department portrait?”īamba said he decided not to let that happen again. “That really stuck with me,” Bamba told CNN. “When you hear about police officers in the news, it’s usually because they’ve done something wrong, or they’ve been killed in the line of duty,” Colorado-based photographer Benny Bamba said.īamba was inspired to start his “ I’m a Police Officer” project after the death of a Utah sheriff’s deputy.Īfter making a traffic stop on January 5, 2010, Millard County Deputy Josie Greathouse Fox was shot and killed, left to die on the side of a remote Utah road.īamba was working as a graphics designer and operator with a news network at the time, and when he asked producers when to expect a photo of the fallen deputy, he said he was saddened when they told him no photo existed. There’s a story behind every badge, and one photographer is working to tell those stories through the lens. ![]()
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