Frida Forever

When I turn the camera on myself, it is not just because I am often alone but because my sick body - with its scars, metal implants, and fragility - is the landscape I know best. Frida Forever is based on my forthcoming book, to be published by Disko Bay in January 2025. The project sheds light on life as disabled and chronically ill, along with the many challenges that come with it. In 2012, I was in an accident that broke my back and left me paralyzed. Additionally, I have experienced cell changes, leading to over a hundred surgeries, countless medical treatments, and radiation therapy. I have spent more than half of my adult life in hospitals. Through photographic self-portraits and images from my hospital stays, I document the life of illness and contrast it with the vibrant, youthful life outside hospital walls. The project unveils the hidden aspects of living with illness and disability, often invisible to others, and challenges what it means to be young and chronically ill. Frida Forever embraces the intersection of being young and sick - or both at once. From the sterile surroundings of the hospital to energetic snapshots of life beyond, the work employs a raw yet playful photographic expression to tell a deeply personal and vulnerable story. For me, it has been a necessity to shape my identity in the liminal space between illness and health. It has been a fragmented process of trying to construct my sense of self within a vacuum of normalcy. Photography becomes my mirror - a way to capture the fragmented parts of myself and my identity. Through the lens of the camera, I reclaim a sense of control and create a narrative where I am not just a patient but also a curator, reshaping the gaze of illness into something deeply personal and meaningful. I live in the borderlands between the healthy and the sick, and it is in these spaces that my project has taken shape - a testament to life on both sides of the hospital walls. Frida Forever is not only a depiction of illness; it is also a story of youth, freedom, and the vulnerability of the human body.