In The Broken Places

“The world breaks everyone
and afterward many are strong in the broken places”

Ernest Hemingway.  A Farewell To Arms. 1929

Towards the end of April 2016, I had heart attack. Strangely it also affected my eyes and left me with a very reduced area of focus. A bit like looking at the world through a macro lens. Even so, I was lucky.

I was in the right place, I had what was obviously a heart attack, I received immediate treatment at a specialist coronary unit (The Golden Jubilee Hospital) and I was enrolled in a clinical study that aims to improve long term outcomes. I was very lucky.

Am I the same as before? Probably not. Anyone who goes through a major trauma is likely to be broken, perhaps not visibly, but the cracks, however faint, will still be there. 

The Japanese term Wabi-Sabi has no literal translation into english. Even the Japanese find it difficult to put in words its true meaning. It is a way to appreciate the things you see and touch. It is a beauty found in the imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is the beauty of the modest and humble and is a beauty found in the unconventional. It is from this aesthetic appreciation that the Kintsugi technique of mending broken pottery with tree resin and gold was developed to enable a much loved, yet worn and broken piece have a new lease of life and be brought back into daily use, stronger in the broken places. 

My images are usually about finding beauty in ignored and forgotten spaces. So, I suppose it’s only natural, that with this very personal series, I’m trying to find beauty in those things and places that have played, or continue to play, a part in my treatment and recovery – their wabi-sabi. 

Thank you!

I would like to thank the Crosshouse Rehab team, the Golden Jubilee Hospital and the T-Time clinical trial team, as many of these images just couldn’t have been made, without the time, support and access that all have given me. Thank you.