After several tough years, James Bray has found his “shot” at success.
At 11 years old, Johnston’s Bray was diagnosed with a rare condition called Von-Hippel Lindau, or VHL, which he said caused him to grow tumors throughout his body. All his life he had dreamed of pursuing a career in the medical field, graduating high school in 2014 and enrolling in pre-medical courses at the Community College of Rhode Island.
Only six months after starting, though, he had thoracic back surgery that doctors told him would make clinical participation impossible. He changed his major to general education and eventually graduated from CCRI and transferred to Southern New Hampshire University online.
According to his website, topshotdesigns.net, the brain and spinal cord neurosurgeries eventually left him paralyzed in 2015.
About a year after his paralysis – when he said he “became very depressed and fell into a dark hole” – Bray found a Nikon camera deal and decided to challenge himself to learn photography. Then, his passion was unlocked.
“I spent the following six months teaching myself through books and YouTube videos until I did my first real photoshoot in April of 2017,” he wrote on his website. “From the time I bought the Nikon DSLR, I learned how easily photography has helped lessen my depression through my ability to be able to interact with people and establish a connection throughout their sessions.”
Bray will be graduating from SNHU in August with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, and he is keeping his business options open.
“I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with it,” Bray said during a phone interview with the Sun Rise last week. “There’s so much that you can do with it, I’m still kind of figuring it out, but right now I’ve kind of just been doing a lot of freelance stuff, logo design, business cards. I do think that I’ll probably lean more toward print-based work.”
Bray said the pandemic didn’t impact his schooling much since he was already attending virtually, but business slowed down at the onset. Clients are starting to pick up now, though, and he has converted a spare bedroom at his home into a studio for on-location work.
“It was definitely rough for me, and a huge lifestyle change because I’ve always had a passion to go into the medical field and it was just kind of shocking when I realized this isn't really realistic. I have to do something from a wheelchair,” Bray said of pivoting to graphic design and photography. “It was kind of traumatic in a way, that I couldn’t fulfill my dream, but it was a blessing in a way because I discovered graphic design and now I can push forward and turn that into a passion of mine with my photography.”
Bray said that he would like to get his photography published in more magazines, adding that he has successfully submitted his work to periodicals seven times. He wants to boost his catalog, though.
“Obviously I’ve undergone 15 neurosurgeries so far, 12 brain and three spinal cord, so that’s been tough in itself, but I feel like without what happened to me I wouldn’t have found my passion,” Bray said. “I would be pursuing the medical field still, but it’s kind of made me work for what I have and discover something new.”
He credited his mom and the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council for their support along the way. The latter, he said, offered business classes that have “been a huge help” in educating Bray on how to run Top Shot Designs.
“Without it, I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Bray said, before offering his advice to fellow entrepreneurs. “Figure out what you want to do. Educate yourself on how to run a business. That’s really the only way to be successful.”
He also shared a message for other people suffering from VHL who may be struggling with their career path: “Don’t let it stop you no matter how hard it gets.”
“Just keep pushing forward, and eventually, things will get easier or you’ll figure out another way to live life,” Bray said.
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