Greg Wickenburg is a quadraplegic and a photographer-artist that specializes in double exposures.
Greg's Story
"I want to thank you in advance for taking the time to read my story. My name is Greg Wickenburg, I was born and raised in Seattle and was a pretty active kid. I loved growing up in Seattle, I went to Roosevelt High School, and played Little League Baseball, Skateboards, BMX Bike, etc. When I was 17 years old, I was in an automobile accident that left me a C-4/5 quadriplegic, which means that I am paralyzed from the shoulders down, unable to use my hands, fingers, waist and legs, only partial arm movement. Some biceps, no triceps. I still remember my days in the hospital. My doctor (Dr. Nutter), my nurse (Marlene). My roommates and friends, Tim, Keith, Jeff, all fellow quadriplegics. We were young and restless. We would race up and down the halls, “borrowing” things to decorate our room. Though I spent a lot of my time at Harborview, I spent a lot of time at UW too. I did a lot of after care there, lots of tests, follow-ups. During my time at Harborview, I was brought to the UW a number of times and used as a guinea pig to be poked and prodded for students to learn how to test my physical ability. Push, pull, lift shoulders, etc. I spent 6 months in the hospital during rehab. Just a few months ago, I reconnected with 4 or 5 of my former nurses on Facebook. I still chat with my old friends. Unfortunately Keith is no longer with us. After my injury, I went from an active kid to spending my days wearing fleece hats, turtleneck sweaters, wrapped in a blanket, sitting by the fire. I rarely left the house because I was always so cold. A person with a spinal cord injury can not regulate their body temp very well (my avg body temp is 96.5 on a good day. Often down to 95 in the mornings). I was miserably cold all the time. So in 2004 we finely moved somewhere warm, to the Phoenix area (Chandler, AZ). I can still get cold, but then I go outside and sit in the sun. I now feel like I am a reptile, sitting in the sun every morning to get warm. Between being warm again, no longer all bundled up, and my service dog Roo, I feel active again. I like to go out and do things. Roo was a rescue dog who had a broken leg when we first got him as a tiny puppy. Someone bought him, somehow broke his leg, and then did not want to pay to fix it. So they dumped him. At that time I was looking for a small dog, just a lap dog I could take on walks in my power wheelchair. I did not want a puppy, but he was just too sweet and cute. We had to adopt him. When Roo was old enough, we started obedience training. We were the only team that flunked. So we went home with long Papillion ears drooping. I tried training Roo by myself. Roo picked things up pretty fast. He can now pick things up that I drop and put it back on my lap. He can turn lights on/off. He can take money or credit card out of my shirt pocket and put on the counter at the store, fix rug corners my wheelchair flips over, and most important is he gets help by barking continuously if I need it. Roo has really helped me out on many occasions, and a number of times it was very important. Many times I have fallen forward or sideways in my wheelchair and because I am paralyzed from shoulders down, I can't sit myself back up, so I had my face in my lap. Once I had a bad medical situation (The above mentioned Autonomic Dysreflexia) in bed and he barked loudly until someone came to help. Another time I drove my chair off the curb, and I was stuck with my chair's wheels off the ground, face in my lap on a slow traffic road. Roo barked until someone at a local park came over to help me. I miss Seattle a lot, but now that I'm warm and active, I've gotten into photography. I do some landscapes, wildlife, but mostly I do a lot of double exposures, taking one photo on top of another photo. I do it all in-camera, not the computer. After doing photography for 6 months, I was lucky enough to get an Art Gallery to offer to show and sell some of my photographs. Art One Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ."