Recovery

In August 2022, photographer Muriel Verbist received the final dose of the chemotherapy following her breast cancer diagnosis six months earlier. The immediate threat of the cancer was gone, but so were the clear guidelines and structure that the chemo had provided. Feeling a need for stability, Muriel decided to document her recovery process.

Every fortnight, she made a self-portrait in her improvised home studio. Through this ritual, Muriel found energy, courage and hope. The repetitive act of photographing herself brought a sense of regularity and comfort. The self-portraits capture every detail, every pore, every wrinkle in the face. The images are intimate and revealing, yet they also conceal much. The soft lighting, the neutral background and the blank expression do not give away the story that lies behind the photographer’s gaze.
The conceptual approach – each of the 32 photographs is consistently composed in the same way – makes it seem like a uniform series, but as you browse through the images, subtle changes begin to emerge.

In this way, the viewer becomes a witness to a gradual transformation, and a companion on the road to recovery.