“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.” This is what Susan Sontag writes in her book Illness as Metaphor.
From these words, my reflection for a new photographic project was born—a work that I have conceived, rethought, and contemplated for over a year and a half, since I gained citizenship in the kingdom of illness. I began to portray young women in their intimacy, beauty, and fragility, but also in their struggles and fears. During our meetings, we ‘stripped ourselves bare’ and shared secrets that will probably remain untold.
Our bodies and minds can be profoundly intimate, sensual, fearful, and full of diverse emotions, while also challenging preconceived notions and normalising sexual experiences. Coming to terms with illness brings indescribable pain, and we do not wish to be seen as victims; rather, we aim to offer an alternative perspective to the one typically associated with disability. This is a work about sisterhood—the sisterhood that saved me and continues to save me. You helped me rethink the body as something malleable—a new body that endures despite pain, surgeries, and transformations, one that can be both desired and desirable simultaneously.
‘’My body speaks like a poem’’ stems from the exploration of the sick body, the body that fights, the body that carries visible and invisible scars. I asked the participants to share a page from their diaries to express what they feel or how they have felt in the past. A very personal addition, which enriches the work. The aim of this project is not only to raise awareness about illness, but also to highlight how, despite illness or disability, these young women confront the stereotypes surrounding them every day, and how they seek to reclaim their own representation."
