Representation of Breast Cancer :: Cancer Health Photography Essays

Representation of Breast Cancer Palimpsest is defined as awrittendocument, typically on vellum or parchment, that has been writtenupon severaltimes, often with remnants of earlier, imperfectly erased writingstill visible,remnants of this kind being a major source for the recovery of lostliteraryworks of classical antiquity (American Heritage Dictionary). Thisdefinitionprovides a way to think over the intersection of photography withbreast pubic louse asa medical condition, a personal trial, and a discourse. As breast cancerstatistics approach one ineight women, critics are beginning to theorize the ways in whichthe disease isnot only a health condition but a psycho-social and a culturalcondition. Themedical world develops a particular set of descriptions of andreactions topatients health conditions, plot individuals,families and groupsgeneratetheir own responses and vocabulary. In addition, larger patterns ofaction anddiscussion also shape and are shaped by culture, t hat is,society(s),lifestyles, media and artistic and literary production. Breastcancertherefore merits a better understanding of the forces ofrepresentation whichdefine the disease itself and its sufferers. Here I aim to examinethe interplayspecifically of photography with representation of breast cancerand breastcancer bodies. Part of the challenge of this project, and indeedits point isthat breast cancer photography is still not raise in majorhistories ofphotography, or even anthologies of womens photography. Itstradition lies inx-rays, MRIs and collections of medical photographs designed forthe purposes ofdocumentation or instruction, or, alternately, in scattered exhibitions or collections. This history has only very recently been reclaim and written differently by women photographers and writers, and feminist academics and activists. I have deliberately chosen two photographs whose subject involves some type of writing literally on the bodyas a way ofconcentrating my dis cussion of the issues involved when photography attempts to process or project experiences of breast cancer, or shape publicperceptions ofthe disease. In this essay, which is part of a more than extensiveinvestigation, I will begin some readings focusing on how two womens work incombined image andtext points to desire and agency. The photographs have both strongsimilaritiesin their re-writing on and of the breast cancer body, and markeddifferences intheir attitudes and intentions. In each case, the photograph itselfis worthlooking at closely as a photograph on its own, yet the text whichaccompanieseach of them--the book it originally appears in with itsdescription of theimage or its production--crucially shapes the meaning of thephotograph. I usethe paradigm of the palimpsest in both fairly literal andmetaphorical ways inorder to look at several questions 1.