New Beginnings: A Photographic Journey of Surviving Cancer

A conversation with noted photographer, Bill Aron, on his photographic documentary of cancer survivors.
There are four phases of cancer: the diagnosis; the treatment; the silent, or post-treatment phase; and the acceptance that there will be a new beginning, a new normal.  Since 2006 Bill Aron has been interviewing and photographing survivors about the 3rd and 4th stages of their experience.

The “silent phase” of cancer occurs after treatment ends, when the flurry of treatment and doctors’ appointments is replaced with a gaping silence.  Even families and friends tend to see the conclusion of treatment as an “end.”  At this point, survivors are left on their own as they attempt to move forward.  Yet,  as Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control has noted, “Having cancer may be the first stage, really, in the rest of your life.”  Ellen Stovall, a senior health-policy adviser for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, has written: “… Learning to live with cancer is a very different mindset – and many need help to figure out how.”

Through Bill Aron’s photographs and excerpts from his interviews with rabbis, doctors and lay people, comes a clear picture of how people can evolve from the terror of diagnosis to a new and better “normal” in their lives. The survivors in his study go from adversity to strength, to giving back to their communities in an effort to help repair the world for others facing such suffering.