Exploding into life

By Dorothea Lynch

Subjects: Death in literature, Biography, Body image in art, Health, Patients, Breast Neoplasms, Science, Cancer, Death in art, Pictorial works, Autobiographical memory in art, Personal Narratives, Body image in literature, Treatment, Cancer in art, Autobiographical memory in literature, Cancer in literature, Breast

Description: "In 1978, thirty-four-year-old Dorothea Lynch discovered she had breast cancer. In an attempt to gain control of the disease and communicate her experience to others, she asked her longtime companion, Eugene Richards, to visually document her struggle while she kept a written diary. Exploding Into Life is the synthesis of their two experiences. What begins as their need to know the facts about cancer becomes, as the years pass, a highly personal inquiry into what it means to be alive, to face the uncertain future, and to accept death. The book that results is a testament to a woman's strength, intelligence, and sensitivity as she confronts cancer, a medical care system, and cultural attitudes towards illness and mortality"--Eugene Richards' website, viewed on December 1, 2014.