It was revelatory for me because not only was I able to make portraits again, but since I was the subject I was able to let the camera into my life completely without question.

So I turned the camera on myself and started making images of myself doing things I did every day.

But in 2010, I had a breakthrough I realized that my story of living with such a severe chronic illness for which there was no cure was the exact kind of story I would be inspired to photograph and show the world if I was healthy, and that I could photograph myself. Photography has been my main creative outlet since high school and without it, I felt lost. I went for a long time without being able to photograph at all, which was a dark time for me emotionally. But it has gradually become more and more severe and in 2010 I became housebound. I have had ME/CFS for 18 years, or since I was 21.

The project follows the progression of my illness from being housebound to having to leave my apartment and move in with my parents in order to receive assistance with daily living, and then continuing to get worse and becoming completely bedridden in a room in the back of that house, unable to speak at all, hardly able to move for 7 long years, and needing a feeding tube and PICC line installed in my body because my stomach became paralyzed. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). I have been photographing myself living with a chronic illness for which there is no cure for the last 13 years, since 2010.

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