Matthew Sanford is an affable and voluble guy. As an author and experienced yoga teacher and practitioner, he is happy to answer a stranger’s naive questions about yoga, even though he’s clearly done so many times before. But he really comes to life when talking about the mind-body connection, a central tenet of all forms of yoga. He is articulate and passionate in his belief that a deeper appreciation of the interaction between the mental and the corporeal could help just about everybody, from the mildly stressed out to the seriously injured and even the permanently disabled. Some might doubt such a claim, but if you are talking to Sanford in person, it’s tough to be skeptical. That’s because Sanford relies on a wheelchair to get around, ever since a devastating car accident when he was 13 left him paralyzed from the chest down.

I was asked to photograph Sanford for a magazine cover story earlier this year. I spent time with him at his home, at his professional yoga studio, and at Courage Center, where Sanford teaches adapted yoga to people with all sorts of disabilities. It took me a few moments to get over the initial surprise of seeing a paraplegic yoga instructor rolling his wheelchair among students, offering them advice and encouragement. But I was in for an even bigger surprise when we spent several hours doing a portrait session. Sanford adeptly slid from his chair onto a yoga mat and proceeded to hold a large variety of sitting yoga poses for me while I fired away. He held his legs tight against his chest while balancing on his butt so that he resembled a closed pocketknife. He used his hands to pick up and fold his legs into the traditional lotus position. He stretched, balanced, and extended for as long as I wanted. There seemed little he couldn’t do, and I left that shoot greatly impressed. I was struck not only by how Sanford has physically adapted to his disability and what he can’t do, but how he has chosen to focus on the many things he can do. His attitude reminded me of a friend’s joke. Three baseball umpires with varying experience are chatting over coffee. The first and most junior says, “I call ‘em as I see ‘em.” The next umpire, who has several years of experience, says, “I call ‘em as they are.” The last and most experienced says, “They ain’t nothin’ till I call ‘em.” In a way, Sanford has chosen to be the umpire of his own life.