Waiting and Helplessness

Artist Helen Jones is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘In The Still’. To see Helen’s body of work, click on any image.

My project, In The Still, is a photographic exploration of the inevitable, and universal experience of inhabiting an unwell body. In The Still focuses on my friend Siobhan who was a writer and lived with cancer for over 6 years. At varying points we have collaborated and made images together. Most recently using the radiotherapy mask that was made to treat her in 2019. I can’t remember the exact diagnosis and don’t pretend to offer these images as documents, rather the images presented are an emotional response to the physical limitations of the human body. And, a personal response to the bravery of a close friend. The work explores the waiting and helplessness that accompanies a terminal illness.