Yael Eshel

There is grace in it

Photographers see the world differently from everyone else. They experience every situation on two levels: from both the inside and the outside of the experience. They lurk, waiting for a moment to be frozen into eternity. In the past year I experienced photography in a new way. The camera became my best friend, thanks to whom I became a superheroine. A year ago I got breast cancer. At the moment of the terrible news and despite my confusion, I knew only one thing: I must photograph everything that is about to happen to me. I chose to observe the disease through documented self-records, as I inserted the camera into every treatment, test, surgery and injection I went through. The camera turned me into both the photography’s object and subject as I displayed my sick body in front of its lens. As soon as the camera was on, I’d whisper “Action” to myself. Thus I was able to endure strangers touching me: I didn't focus on the pain I was experiencing, I just posed for the camera. In this photography project, I disclose my ongoing dialogue with the lump in my breast, including the hardship I went through over the course of a year. The camera was my grace.