Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society

Capturing Chronic Illness

20 November 2020, 5pm

drawing of people taking photos

Exploration of how photography can be used to visualise and re-imagine bodies  and chronic illness

Endometriosis, asthma, HIV, ME, depression…what is chronic illness? How do we see chronic illness? Chronic illness is often not visible on the body. It can also be hidden by gender, sexuality, race and age. How does this shape what we think about and how we live with long-term illness? Photography offers creative possibilities of capturing life with an illness. It also allows us to reveal and reimagine bodies living with illness.

Throughout the Being Human Festival, we are running  an online photography exhibition. Presenting a collection of invited and submitted work, the exhibition explores the many ways that photography can capture chronic illness and help us reimagine bodies and health. This exhibition feature work that engages with how people living with a long-term illness imagine their lives.

On Friday, 20th November, medical humanities scholars Dr Donna McCormack (University of Surrey) and Dr Ingrid Young (Edinburgh of Edinburgh) will host an interactive discussion that explores the issues raised by the exhibition. They will be joined by Dr Chisomo Kalinga (Edinburgh) and Marc Thompson (The Love Tank, BlackOutUK). This discussion will be held online and will explore a number of issues raised by the exhibition.

This event will be of interest to anyone interested in photography, to those affected by chronic illness and for anyone interested in health and art.