A Healing Journal

This visual documentation started as I got diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and went into chemotherapy treatment. I found myself no being able to continue any of my ongoing projects, but confidently knowing photography is going to play an essential part in my healing process, so I asked my partner, who is also one of my caregivers, to photograph different instances. It was raw, painful, but also awakening and meaningful. The decision of sharing this intimate cancer-healing process is based on the belief that it opens a space to talk about the physical and especially the emotional challenges of one of the world’s largest health problems. I’m interested in addressing questions like How can we (both patients and caregivers/loved ones) cope? Can we find peace of mind/peace of heart in the process? Can we understand each other better? Can we help each other more? The series is a visual narrative intertwining my perspective, as an artist-patient, and my partner's as caregiver-photographer. In some cases, I would explain my vision and it felt like taking self-portraits with another's trusted hands and eyes, and other candid moments are captured from Catalin's perspective as a caregiver. We were both devoted to capturing the variety of psychological states one experiences along this path, and also the physical modifications that occur during treatment and recovery.