Breathe

Breathe is a photographic series exploring the experience of living with stage IV cancer. After more than two decades as a cinematographer, a diagnosis forced me to pause and reorient everything. Photography, once a space for experimentation and play has became a space for survival. These images are not documentary records. They are carefully constructed moments. Scenes where gesture, light, and stillness express the psychological and emotional weight of illness. Rather than showing treatment or hospitals, Breathe explores the inner landscape: fear, fragility, endurance, and grace. The title comes from my mantra in moments of pain or overwhelm: count the breath, like when swimming. One, two, three — breathe. Again. And again. It became the only thing I could control — a rhythm when everything else was uncertain. Drawing from my background in cinematography, I used the visual language of film — darkness, atmosphere, control of light — to shape images that reflect not just what illness looks like, but what it feels like. Most of the scenes are set at night, when what’s hidden becomes louder and emotion sharpens. Light, used sparingly, becomes a metaphor for hope or clarity. Breathe is not only about cancer. It’s about the body under pressure, and the quiet dignity of continuing. It’s about being seen — not just as a patient, but as a person still fully alive, even in the shadow of something vast.