Invisible stories

Invisible stories is a set of two books in a slipcase that are the result of a two years long participatory photography project I organized with 19 cancer survivors in Singapore. Following a working framework and theme that I proposed, participants produced a series of photographs that metaphorically represent their experience of illness. These images are paired with text that allows a better understanding of cancer survivors’ messages. Using visual metaphors, these pictures purposely do not show scars, mutilation or weakness and they challenge a way of creating awareness of the illness through shocking or disturbing images.

This project facilitated self-reflections, awareness of personal concerns, dialogical exchanges, story telling, mutual understanding and encouragement among participants. The narratives that emerged along the process are intimate, personal and are mainly untold. These consists in concerns, feelings, and also suggestions that would have otherwise remained invisible. The metaphorical and conceptual approach to the experience of illness aim to create empathy and closeness to the problem of living with cancer, which is nowadays widely diffused in developed countries.

In this submission I just proposed few images and few texts as example of what the participant produced.

The slipcase contains two books. For the first one, I invited participants to choose an object that reminded them of their concerns related to the illness and to photograph it. Through the development of the project, they learned photographic skills and, under my guidance, they created the best picture and paired it with an explanatory text. The book is printed in transparencies, and the reader can see the pictures only using a card. This gesture symbolizes the effort that people need to do in order to really listen to the stories of others. In the second book, participants created a series of photographs following the theme of food or edible plants. In this part they attempted to give advises and elaborate approaches to cope with the illness.

My aim as a participatory photographer is to create awareness of the complexity of living with cancer and generate empathy towards a very common disease.