‘These Kids Are Superheroes’: Photographer Turns Disabled Children Into the ‘Justice League’

Josh Rossi may seem like a regular dad, but he’s got superhuman skills when it comes to creating larger-than-life pictures. In February, the commercial photographer made headlines for transforming his daughter Nelee into Belle from Beauty and the Beast in one seriously magical photo shoot.

Now, he’s back with another photo shoot, this time inspired by superheroes and their real-life counterparts: children who not only live with disabilities but fight to overcome them every day.

Josh Rossi may seem like a regular dad, but he’s got superhuman skills when it comes to creating larger-than-life pictures. In February, the commercial photographer made headlines for transforming his daughter Nelee into Belle from Beauty and the Beast in one seriously magical photo shoot.

Now, he’s back with another photo shoot, this time inspired by superheroes and their real-life counterparts: children who not only live with disabilities but fight to overcome them every day.

Rossi’s wife, Roxana, produced the photo shoot and helped him match each child with a respective superhero that had overcome similar obstacles. For example, a little boy named Kayden was matched up with Cyborg. “The actual superhero got in a really bad accident, and his head was the only thing that survived. His dad kept him alive by adding prosthetics to him and robotic parts,” Rossi explained.

“And so [there was] a similar story with one of the kids… In the womb, he had organs on the outside of his body, and so doctors told the mom they should abort him… but the mom decided to save him.” When Kayden was born, he underwent many surgeries and had both his legs amputated. “Now, he has prosthetics, and so we just thought it’d be perfect to put him in as Cyborg,” Rossi concluded. “We turn their weaknesses into strengths.”

Another child, Zaiden, with severe ADHD was going through a difficult time after he’d been kicked out of school and his friends had stopped inviting him to parties. “At some point, his mom said that she saw the light go out of his eyes,” Rossi recalled. Because he had difficulty sitting still, the little boy loved running. Naturally, that inspired Rossi to turn him into The Flash.