Lynn Redgrave
- Lynn Redgrave
The world learned of the passing of actress Lynn Redgrave this week with the issuing of this beautiful statement by her family:
Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer. She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives.
After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, Redgrave asked her daughter, a photography student, to photography her journey through treatment and recovery. And so, while her mother documented the experience in her journal, Annabel compiled a photo journal, and in doing so, became part of the recovery process.
I looked through these photos on the New York Times website this morning and they brought back powerful memories for me. They are an intimate portrait of the journey with cancer – one that will be familiar to so many of us. I found myself lingering over them, looking at the fear, the sadness, the vulnerability, the courage in Redgrave’s eyes. I was immediately struck by the first picture in the collection, picturing the actress a few weeks before she was diagnosed, unaware of how her life was to change. I remember examining pictures of myself taken on a trip to the States and wondering at what I didn’t know in those pictures. I didn’t know that cancer had already invaded my body. There was a certain innocence to the time and a feeling of sadness washed over me as I looked at those pictures, something similar to what Redgrave wrote in her diary: Sunday. 16 February 2003
I have my moments of such sadness. They hit me quite suddenly. My loss of innocence. The innocence that made me feel that cancer couldn’t happen to me.
If you take the time to look at this collection of pictures, I would love to know if they resonated with you too. Did you take photographs during your treatment or keep a journal?
Click here for Lynn Redgrave’s photo-journal
Just had a look at the photos – boy they sure are powerful..especially the post-surgical ones..brought back a lot of memories for me too.
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Very intimate portrayal of cancer treatment – very powerful. I wish I had kept a journal in this way during my own treatment.
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Thanks for sharing this with us. The pictures are so poignant. I loved her journal statement…”It’s all about order I’ve decided. The pleasure I get and the sense of my life in place, amidst the things I can’t control. Like finding a big lump in my otherwise healthy body.”–I have to wonder, will we ever feel a sense of control again?
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Kim raises a very interesting question here and I too am very struck by you examining that picture of yourself before your diagnosis. Were you almost looking for signs of what was to come?
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Yes Alisha, I think I must have been. I find it hard to believe that cancer was growing inside me insiduously and I had no idea – which links in with what Kim says, will I ever feel like I can trust my body again??
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Very powerful images..brought a lot of painful memories back for me.
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I scheduled my porta cath removal for next week, the photos
were all to familiar. Ms. Redgraves grace during this journey is very touching.
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Very poignant
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What a wonderful tribute to Ms Redgrave Marie. You really write with great sensitivity in this one that is near and dear to all of our hearts. I expecially like the portrite of her and her daughter on the bed! Yes there were flash back reminders for me as well as I viewed the pictures. I am again reminded that each woman has their own story of grace as we too press on. Thank you for taking the time to write this one.
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Very powerful and intimate images
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A moving set of images and a brave choice to take control of her situation by recording it – accepting the reality of it. It takes such strength to be vulnerable in this way.
A wonderful woman.
ax
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Incredibly moving and I love what Angela had to say above about the incredible strength it takes to be that vulnerable
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I cried looking at these pictures they brought back very real memories for me
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How incredibly moving.
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Ya’ know, Marie…I’ve been so wrapped up in my own stuff that it just now resonated with me that you went through the whole horrible diagnosis and treatment process. Something about this post hit me…and I really hate breast cancer. A loss of innocence…god that is so accurate.
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