Imelda Ball

Facing the Monster Imelda Ball

Imelda Bell was diagnosed with breast cancer and was worried it would take away her creativity and passion as a photographer. She started a diary to keep track of her journey and once sufficiently recovered from surgery, she began to take self-portraits in her studio to document the changes and emotions she felt during chemotherapy. Initially, she thought that having chemotherapy would put her out of action for months on end with no respite, and Imelda wanted to get a message across to other people facing a diagnosis, that this isn't the case. Treatment is full of ups and downs, but in between the downs, you can carry on and live and enjoy life. In "Facing the Monster" Imelda shares not only her emotional photographs, but also her diary, in the hopes that she can show people that you can still live while having treatment for cancer.

Imelda eventually started taking photos of other people with cancer and they each share some of their experience to accompany the photo, which Imelda took of them.