Patient reflects on my emotional and challenging journey following a brain tumour diagnosis delivered by post in 2018. The work traces my experience through to 2024, exploring the prolonged waiting and uncertainty that followed, and the psychological impact of navigating illness and the healthcare system.

The camera became a way into my soul, giving a visual voice to experiences I could not always put into words. Fear, vulnerability, loss of control and the strange suspension of time that comes with being a patient sit alongside resilience and hope. ‘Patient’ gradually emerges not simply as a medical label, but as a newfound identity.


Following the operation, I lost sight in my right eye, and many of the photographs were shaped by this newly reduced vision. I used different cameras depending on the context, from spontaneous mobile phone photographs to the slow, deliberate process of working with a Mamiya RB67 medium-format film camera.



After my first surgery, I went looking for a landscape that reflected how I felt. I found it in a former mining area, a landscape marked by what had happened to it. Photographing it with the Mamiya was a slow process, echoing the healing process.




Screenshots from Holding It Together, a six-hour performance exploring the endurance required to live through severe illness. The work was influenced by Marina Abramović and her use of duration, physical presence and vulnerability in performance.