THE FEMALE GAZE: “#GirlGaze No. 7: Gazing at Self, Gazing at Others” by Diana Nicholette Jeon

I met Nina Weinberg Doran via Facebook during the mid-2010s. I knew that she was a cancer survivor and that she felt that photography had saved her sanity during a difficult time. However, I didn’t know this work existed; it wasn’t among the series of hers I had seen. I found the work while exploring websites for a different FRAMES article; it immediately moved me. How do you find the spunk and bravery to show the world this private darkness? Doran looked the dragon in the eye and stood firm, making a work that every woman fears living through themselves. The work lays bare the fear and frustration only one who experienced it can know. It is impossible to see this work and not feel deeply.

I’ll close with the words Weinberg Doran wrote for me, “a routine mammogram, followed by the unexpected diagnosis of breast cancer…HER2+, my head was swirling…i couldn’t imagine what might be my life in the coming year or more…the first word…Chemotherapy…turned my insides out…loss of hair…the world would know…i would be exposed…to them…to myself…to my inner world of terror…as i grappled with a long period of time in treatment…surgery…radiation…more treatment for a year after…i peeled the layers back inside myself…and found the most important gem…myself. True Identity. Truly Exposed…. it was then i turned the camera on myself.”