Tag Archives: photography

Godzilla stands next to a purple hospital, breathing out engulfing flames of fire. He is burning out cancer.

This drawing was one of many to inspire art therapist Lisa Murray to share the work of children with cancer. Photographer Billy Howard is also dedicated to these children, capturing their personalities through a camera lens. Together, Murray and Howard set out to bridge their representations of these children. Murray let children illustrate what it feels like to have cancer through the medium of their choice, then wrote out their explanations. Howard photographed each child individually, honoring their personal journeys with cancer.

Godzilla vs. Cancer was an art gallery exhibition in 1994, sharing the illustrations, explanations, and photographs of 25 children with a larger audience outside the Pediatric Oncology ward. Eight years later in 2002, 17 of the children had survived. These creations along with biographies and a list of resources were compiled to create the book Angels & Monsters: A child’s eye view of cancer.

Cancer brings out fear: tears, pain, sickness, confusion, isolation, and band-aids. But it also brings out friendships, faith, perspective, and love. While each artistic piece offers insight into each child’s perspective, black and white photographs showcase each child’s self. On a swing, with a superhero cape, by a window, curled in a bed. Each work of art and the rationale behind it is compelling, each photograph and each child beautiful.

The authors reflect honestly with simple yet profound understandings of these children and their journeys. I loved the phrase that Jeff Foxworthy uses in the forward to describe these children: “old souls in little bodies” (viii). These individuals exhibit the precision of language as they carve out childhood cancer. They invite us to into “a special world. No artifice exists there. The human spirit holds sway with complete honesty and great dignity” (6).