Photographs provide awareness on illness: Exhibit takes viewers through life of breast cancer patient
John Dunphy
Issue date: 9/23/04 Section: Life!
- Page 1 of 2 next >
|
The pictures tell the story of a woman, Stephanie Bryam who was diagnosed with breast cancer and treated by excision, only to be tested positive for cancer again later. In this black and white collection of photographs, Brodsky depicts the life of a woman who has suffered, regained hope, suffered more and in the end was able to look onward toward the future.
Many of the opening images capture the aftermath of the extraction operation. Images of her chest and the shadows that line the scars where her breasts had once been haunt the mind. Continuing throughout the collection, one finds that Brodsky had Bryan hold objects over her chest representative of breasts. Leaves, pine cones, clip-on earrings and in one picture, hands tell the viewer that there is a definitive loss of something.
Essentially the story goes that Stephanie Bryam had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctors felt that if they simply removed her breasts, the cancer would be removed as well.
After the surgery, there was a brief period of release where Bryam was forced to learn how to live with the loss of, essentially, her identity as a woman and coming to terms with what society dictated a woman was.
After having just accepted this fate, it was discovered that the cancer remained. She underwent chemotherapy which led to the loss of her hair, and eventually she passed away. Although this does appear to be an extremely sad and depressing story, it is actually one of hope. The entire time, Stephanie never lost hope that she would come through in the end. She persisted in looking towards the future. Although she has since died, her story now goes on and tells many people the importance of treating cancer.
Although each photograph is significant and adds its own importance to the overall story, some images are far more spellbinding than others. One set of images is Stephanie simply turning her head. The first shot is the back of her head, and each one after that is taken with her turning slightly so that ultimately she is looking at you over her shoulder. The caption that goes along with this photo and the several others in the “post-chemo phase” of her life discussed that people look at people with abnormalities differently. The turning of her head makes a viewer feel ashamed and guilty of just that. After having looked over almost every inch of her body, the head turn almost makes a person feel like she is aware that you’ve just seen her at her most vulnerable point.