Our Journal
After the actress Lynn Redgrave learned she had breast cancer in December 2002, she chose to undergo surgery, followed by a half-year regimen of chemotherapy and radiation. She also asked her daughter Annabel Clark, then a photography student at Parsons School of Design, if she would photograph the course of treatment and recovery. It was an idea that had occurred to Annabel as well: while her mother documented the experience in her journal, she would take pictures of the healing process -- and in so doing, become part of that process, for both her mother and herself.
'Goodbye to a part of me. It's done its job -- it's been a good nurturer of my children.' . . . Time to say goodbye.
'Went to the service at the Congregational church. . . . By the end I feel peaceful and optimistic. . . . A way to be part of the community. A way to feel I am not alone in my worries. . . . Horrible upsetting phone calls regarding Annabel photographing at chemo, etc. Thank God that finally got cleared up. I cried so much. I realized how much her documenting this means to me.'
'I've done my exercises, but my scar tissue grips and grabs like a tight iron corset. I don't feel pretty. I feel a little sad. . . . I need to get my papers and records under control. . . . It's all about order, I've decided. The pleasure I get and the sense of my life in place, amidst the things that I can't control. . . . As I do things like fold my napkins into my linen closet. . . . Or leaving clean clothes in my closet. Logs stacked. Dishes clean. Garbage out. Cats fed. Their hallway neat. It all gives me the warmest satisfaction.'