What happened, in summary

Kat was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and turned to photography as a way to cope with treatment. Alongside a written journal, she began taking a daily self-portrait to capture how she felt from day to day.

During chemotherapy with paclitaxel (Taxol), the photo project gave her something creative to focus on during a difficult period. She described using the extra energy she sometimes felt around treatment to create playful portraits with costumes, expressions, and props. The images became a record of both the strain of treatment and the moments when she could still laugh and feel like herself.

Her series continued through the end of radiation treatment. Nine months after the phone call telling her she had breast cancer, Kat had taken more than 3,000 photographs and was planning another project to document her hair growing back over six months. Photography helped her look back on treatment through a sense of creativity and accomplishment rather than only through illness.