DOI: 10.18848/2154-8560/cgp/a378 ISSN: 2154-8579

Chemo-Graphy

Tamara Voninski
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Searching for the Light is a lens‑based visual essay that offers an intimate, practice‑led investigation of the embodied experience of chemotherapy. Developed during my chemotherapy, this study engages with the materiality of photographic prints and transparencies to evoke the physical and psychological effects of “chemo decay.” Through a hybrid methodology that integrates memoir writing with a personal photographic archive, the project examines how creative practice can function simultaneously as a therapeutic process and a mode of inquiry into the lived realities of illness. The central research question is explored through creative interventions and conceptual reframing: What kinds of insight can artistic practice offer into the bodily and mental experience of chemotherapy? The project introduces the term “chemo‑graphy” to articulate expanded photographic techniques that respond directly to the impact of cancer treatment on the body. Case studies of lens‑based artists, writers, and cancer survivors further situate the work within broader discourses on illness, healing, and creative expression. Ultimately, Searching for the Light positions art practice as a potent site of transformation—one where the aesthetics of decay intersect with resilience and reflection, opening new possibilities for how cancer narratives are made, felt, and understood.

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