11.26am, Thursday 10 August 2017– Annemarie and I have been married just 8 weeks she’s my wife, my partner, my friend, my equal. I’m sitting in a tiny room at Dunedin Hospital thinking why don’t they have vomit bowls or at least a rubbish bin – my next choice, the nearest option I see is a plant bowl. Our lives have been shattered– a stage three breast cancer diagnosis. I am in total disbelief, not even sure that I heard that right, did she really say that and I just want to vomit, my brain is jumping madly between scenarios and what this means for Annemarie, for us, for me. Our lives have taken a sudden new and frightening direction.
One and half years later we have completed a collaborative project and book called STILL INTRUSION which explores the impact of this cancer diagnosis on our lives. It is our photographic response to the diagnosis, various treatments and ongoing worry. Annemarie’s work is historic processes imagery – delicate, soft, gentle and STILL. My imagery is INTRUSION – gritty, urban, angry, wet road signs that for me represent the intrusion cancer has made on our lives together. One set in the series has a wet collodion treatment referencing Annemarie’s art medium but also the impact chemicals have had on our lives. The postscript series are darker, referencing the choices we have to make and the chaos of a second cancer diagnosis.
