Sometimes all it takes is a photograph.

In a recent conference I attended, the plenary speaker posed a simple question to the audience, “What inspires you?” The house lights illuminated and hands were raised throughout the auditorium. Incredible stories of cancer survival, a march with Dr. King, and the harrowing account of a girl nursing her ailing parents infected with Ebola were all told with such conviction, poise, and sincerity. It was a room full of inspiration, gratitude, and positivity. In the end, my hand was raised too.

“What inspires me was a single smile,” I told the crowd. I recounted that in all the years of photographing landscapes and wildlife, it seemed like the end result was always personal. I never received words of gratitude from a sea lion or a high-five from a sunset. But when I photographed a girl named Josie (not her real name) for a project called Healthy Portraits, something was different. I knelt down and showed her the back of the camera revealing her portrait. Looking back at her was a young girl from Shungnak, Alaska learning how to ski for the first time. She looked up from the camera and smiled, and that was it.

You see...Josie was deaf, but that one smile spoke volumes.