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.
