To know more about cancer

Once Viviana's breast cancer was detected and operated on, the following treatment consisted on four chemotherapy sessions, one every 21 days, and two months of radiotherapy on the afflicted breast (Monday through Friday). At the end of this treatment I remember the doctor telling her: from now on know you are well but not cured.

It was only three months after, that the check-ups showed small metastasis in her spine. From this moment on, once again she had to undergo chemotherapy with other drugs and radiotherapy on her spine. All the photographs in the exhibition were taken during this second stage. During the first one I felt more like forgetting than remembering and my commitment to my wife's illness was not the same.

A clear evidence of the presence of the illness at home was Viviana's loss of hair. I painfully discovered that confronted with illness people run away, as if it were always the case of it being a contagious entity that one could escape from by avoiding the sick person. On the contrary, and I don’t know why, my friend Humberto never lost his hair, and it was a surprise to me to see how strangers believed us to be healthy (:"safe").

I think that deep down in their hearts, people who act this way assume they are exempt from the illness as long as they don’t "see" it (in fact, I bet you more than one person will stop looking at these photographs right now for this very same reason). I have to admit now that, at the beginning, I was also manipulated by this same fear. Later on, as I could not avoid being present, I decided to remain behind my camera. I was so close and so far away at the same time! Little by little, this game with the camera turned into something Viviana, Humberto, and I shared. A language without words, where the camera allowed us to keep each other company and not leave each other alone, not even in the places banned to the "healthy ones". In the end, love was stronger than fear. I believe it is just now that I understand how my grandfather felt that day...