Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

«Sing»

The story of 20 children born or living with illness or health conditions is being told by Toronto photographer and artist Shawn Van Daele, by transforming their drawings into magical photographs.

Children jump over a puddle of water as they play during a rainstorm on a street in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, September 18, 2021. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Nigerians take a photo in their traditional clothes during Eid al-Fitr prayers in Lagos, Nigeria on May 2, 2022. Muslims gather to perform Eid al-Fitr prayers held in Nigeria, the country with the largest Muslim population in Africa. (Photo by Adeyinka Yusuf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A sign advising to pray for rain hangs above an exhibit area at the 47th Annual World Ag Expo in Tulare, February 12, 2014. About a hundred years ago, when urban water systems were being developed throughout the state, the city of Sacramento wrote protections from metering into its charter, vowing that residents would always have the right to use as much water as they needed. But on Tuesday, the state's top water regulators released a framework for enforcing California's first statewide mandatory restrictions on urban water use – cuts of 25 percent for non-agricultural users ordered last week by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown as a devastating drought enters its fourth year. (Photo by David McNew/Reuters)

A grave cleaner holds up a skull during exhumation works at the Cemetery General in Guatemala City May 24, 2013. If a lease on a grave has expired or not been paid, grave cleaners will break open the crypts to remove and rebury the bodies. (Photo by Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)

A man rides his motorcycle as the sun sets in Basra, Iraq, Monday, May 9, 2022. (Photo by Nabil al-Jurani/AP Photo)

A Sikh pilgrim sits next to the holy sarovar or sacred pool on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, in Nankana Sahib on November 19, 2021. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP Photo)