A core part of this project’s creation was when a couple of my family members were diagnosed with breast cancer in this past year. I approached Jessica to propose this project because her words of comfort and advice had helped my family. I wanted to create a book with Jessica to share her experiences and bring solace, inspiration, and hope to others facing similar challenges. The book covers topics including Jessica's experience from diagnosis to the present, suggestions for patients, tested resources, advice for families and supporters, and a visually appealing design different from typical medical booklets.

The photographs I have taken for this project visually represent and enhance Jessica’s Story and help readers to better understand and visualise her experience in the best way possible; the photos open the opportunity for readers to have more of an emotional connection with the story too, as well as myself whilst documenting.

Jo Spence’s phototherapy work with Rosy Martin inspired and helped me create this project,

“The considerable achievement of Photo-Therapy was to invert the traditional relationship between the photographer and the subject. If historically the subject had little control over their own representation, Photo-Therapy shifts this dynamic. The subject was able to act out personal narratives and claim agency for their own biography.”

(Center of British Photography, Unknown)

Jo’s project was also on the topic of breast cancer and her experience through treatment. We used similar techniques of co-counselling that Jo Spence and Rosy Martin used, such as having equal exchanges during our conversations and taking turns when listening and speaking; when having conversations, we made sure to actively listen, we took away as many distractions as we could and set a good time to talk in places we wouldn’t be interrupted; we made sure to feedback after conversations and validate the other person and what they have talked about. Jessica and I found ourselves feeling the same empowerment that Rosy & Jo felt during their work, we talked about new things in ways we hadn’t talked about them before and built a big amount of trust into our relationship which benefitted the project greatly.

The writing and the photographs resulted in being raw, unfiltered, gritty, and exactly what we wanted it to be, I don’t believe this project would have been as successful if we didn’t adopt Jo Spence’s phototherapy techniques into it. I searched for as many of the existing projects to do with breast cancer as I could, and I took inspiration from Ami Barwell’s Stand Up to Cancer ‘Defiance’ series & ‘Mastectomy’ series (Cancer Research, 2017)(Stand Up to Cancer, Unknown) , Sophie Tea Art's ‘Send Nudes’ book campaign (Sophie Tea Art, 2023) , Jo Spence’s ‘A Picture of Health: Property of Jo Spence?’ & Phototherapy work with Rosy Martin (Center of British Photography, Unknown) & ‘The Grace Project’ Charise Isis (Charise Isis, Unknown).

I wanted this project to be just as raw, and unfiltered as these projects above, giving a nod to the darker side of breast cancer whilst still shining a light on the positive and focusing on helping the readers with seeing life past cancer. Jessica and I had the conversations before the photographs were taken so I could figure out where I needed to go and visit. My camera and I did our best to trace the footsteps that Jessica walked during this time; visiting her old home, sitting in the cafe she escaped to for some normality, looking in the hospital waiting room she sat in on the darkest days of her life; she fearlessly bared her scars to me, both physical and mental. I photographed these places as naturally as I could, just as I found them to make it as candid as I could.

References:

Sophie Tea Art, 2023. Send Nudes book Campaign. Sophie Tea Art [Instagram], Unknown. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/sophieteaart/ [April 6th 2024].

Stand Up to Cancer, Unknown. SU2C hosts powerful 'Defiance' photo series [online]. Google: Stand Up to Cancer. Available at: https://www.standuptocancer.org.uk/photo-series-cancer-diagnosis-defi-ance [April 6th 2024]

Cancer Research, 2017. Brave women stand up to cancer and bare their mastectomy scars [online]. Google: Cancer Research. Available at: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2017/10/02/brave-women-stand-up-to-cancer-and-bare-their-mastectomy-scars/ [April 6th 2024]

Centre for British Photography, unknown. Jo Spence [online]. Google, Center for British Photography: Available at: https://britishphotography.org/artists/88-jo-spence/overview/ [April 12th 2024]

Charise Isis, Unknown. The Grace Project [online]. Google: Charise Isis. Available at: https://the-grace-project.org/meet-photographer/ [April 9th 2024]