Teratoma

On the 20th of June 2007 I under-went cardio-thorasic heart surgery to remove a teratoma tumour lodged between my heart and lung.  Discovered only weeks before the operation I had felt perfectly well.  Post surgery I had never felt so unwell.  And now I convalesce.

I began documenting my experience the day I had my heart monitored.  Using the camera as a tool to record what was to become an ordeal the photographs are both evidence and tangible objects that helped to bridge the distance between experience and memory.  The images I am referring to here are not the images I have chosen to show.  Through the process of recovery I have stripped away most of the photographs that illustrate direct details of what actually occurred. In my time of reflection I have come to see that what actually happened bears little relevance to where the experience took me emotionally.  Pain, loss and grief cannot be felt intellectually.  How I felt was inherent to a broken heart and a broken heart is a universal epidemic.

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