Maria has Down syndrome, autism and six fingers. She uses them to flash the heavy metal sign at the camera on a beach, sunglasses on, entirely unbothered. That image, taken by documentary photographer Carol Allen-Storey, conveys something vital about Defying the Myth, the book she's spent more than a decade making. It's not a record of suffering. It's a record of people living, in all the complicated, joyful, exhausting fullness that entails.
Allen-Storey is an award-winning photographer who has spent her career documenting complex humanitarian and social issues. Appointed a UNICEF ambassador for photography in 2009, her previous projects include work on rape as a weapon of war and healing after genocide. She is not a photographer who tackles easy subjects, or takes easy pictures.
