It is the summer of 2020, and I am coughing really badly. I go from doctor to doctor, the diagnosis is uncertain. One day, I end up in the hospital and a series of examinations awaits me in the intensive care unit. It turns out I have lymphoma, and my chemotherapy treatment starts immediately. In the case of this disease, a group of white blood cells begin to behave like cancer cells; they keep growing and dividing in an unregulated manner in the lymph nodes. I am trying to come to terms with this insidious disease, in sterile hospital rooms, isolated from the outside world.
The treatments weaken me: I have neither the strength nor the will to take photos. Once the chemotherapy is over, I start to feel better. I grab my camera to take photos again, but my thoughts are still around the events of the past six months. By means of photography, I try to tell the story of what happened to me and how I am recovering.
Adrienn Józan is a Hungarian photographer. Her work is characterized by a diarist attitude: she draws the themes of her photo series from her own life. She primarily takes pictures of herself and her immediate surroundings, with recurring themes of identity, kinship, and transience. Her work has been exhibited in several group exhibitions around Europe. She received the grant of the Hungarian National Cultural Fund twice (2019, 2021), and in 2020 she was selected for the Fresh Eyes Talent program founded by GUP magazine.