Caregiver: Index To Pictures

Index
To Pictures

General Artistic and Semi-Technical Notes

I took almost all of the photographs for this book with my little Nikon 5700 digital camera. I love this camera. It’s small, yet accepts telephoto, close-up and wide-angle lenses.

Any photos that were not taken with my 5700 are noted in the Attributions section of their index entry on the following pages. The historical shots are created from digital scans of the original paper print.

Semi-Technical. The Nikon 5700 can produce digital pictures with five million pixels. To maximize storage and minimize time between shots, I capture jpeg files, a compressed format, which average 1-2 Megabytes each. The size of my original capture is a large 2560 X 1920 pixels. I use a 256 Megabyte Compact Flash card, which can store over 100 of my pictures before downloading to the computer.

I shoot a lot. During 2003, when almost all of my photo work was done for this book, I took about 10,000 photographs. Using a digital camera allows me to do this with virtually no cost per shot. (The costs come in paper and ink for my Epson 1280 printer.)

Because I shoot a lot, I spend a great deal of time back at the computer selecting and processing my final pictures. The 150 pictures in this book took 1-2 hours each to process at the computer: about a month of normal workdays in all. I captured the images in earnest for nine months, and wrote the text for four months. It’s taken about two months to compile the book. All of this happened during a nine-month period: multi-tasking.

Most of the photos in this book were taken in our cancer treatment clinic, which appears to be bright and well lighted. My light meter said it wasn’t. Shooting a simulated 100-200 speed “film,” all of these interior shots demanded wide aperture (well below 5.6) and very slow shutter speed (1/60^th to 1/4^th second). While the automated features of the camera were most helpful with my hand-held shots, many of them have a visible blur.

Artistic. Because I wanted to take candid pictures in the ambient light of the true settings, I almost never used a flash or other set-up lighting. This allowed me, while shooting over the months, to become nearly invisible to Corinne (my main subject) and – more importantly – to the medical professionals who treated her.

For many different reasons, I chose to process these pictures in such a way that they appear to be painted. I used Adobe Photoshop to do this. I felt the subject (cancer treatment) is bleak and a number of the photos might be hard for some people to look at. I transformed the photographs into pictures that are softer, a bit less real and have something of a Norman Rockwell feel to them.

Though most of the pictures are printable in larger size, I cropped nearly all of them to an 11” x 14” format, which prints very nicely.

I can’t believe you’re still reading this. Let’s look at the pictures.

Click any small picture to go to its page in the book.
Use the Back Button to return here.

Picture	Title: Description	Attributions
	The New Yorker Bald and bejeweled in the clinic waiting room, Corinne reads the magazine with very appropriate cover art: a man writing himself into a corner.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Half Full Corinne, in a patterned sweater, holds a faceted glass of water. Closeup on the glass and hand.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	We Grew Up Linda, nude with a fancy hairdo and heavy makeup, discretely holding her knees.	Featuring: Linda Wesley Place: Tallahassee, FL Date: 1968 Camera: Yashica MatEM
	Unconventional Young Linda with our three yearold daughter, Meredith, posing nude in a steamer trunk.	Featuring: Linda Wesley and Meredith Wesley Place: Lakeland, FL Date: 1973 Camera: Yashica Mat-EM
	Courage Linda in her last years, balded by chemo and radiation and bloated by prednisone, smiling bravely.	Featuring: Linda Wesley Place: Lakeland, FL Date: 2000 Camera: Cannon ELPH 370Z
	Portrait A close-up of Corinne, bald head cropped, with her wedding ring prominently featured.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Homely Sage A shot of our adobe-looking house from very low to very high with a foreground full of purple Russian Sage and a background full of sky.	Featuring: Our Home Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2001 Camera: Nikon 990
	At the Spring Corinne stands as her horse, Sultan, grazes by a spring in a canyon near our home in Cerrillos, New Mexico.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Monument Valley Corinne from behind as she takes a picture of towering structures Monument Valley on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Near Kayenta, Arizona Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Stalking Corinne crouches in a dawn-lit Aspen grove in Utah’s Ashley National Forest to take pictures of white columbines.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: North of Vernal, Utah Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Go From behind, Corinne rides Sultan quickly up a hill near our home toward a bright blue New Mexican sky.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	With Foal Corinne pets the mom and her three hour-old foal at Peter Bassin’s Rhino Ranch in Cerrillos, NM.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley, Sarah and Firefly Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	With Crow Corinne crouches to communicate with a crow in Canyonlands National Park.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Moab, Utah Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	With Lobo At sunset, Corinne sets up on our front porch to take a picture of a neighbor’s dog who is visiting.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Lobo Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	With Deer Corinne kneels, asking four deer to come closer in Canyonlands National park near Moab, Utah.	Featuring:Corinne Wesley Place: Moab, Utah Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Mental Floss Corinne poses in front of a very flat summer rainbow on our deck in Cerrillos, NM.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Lump A close-up of the mass in Corinne’s neck weeks before it was diagnosed as Lymphoma.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Doctors Corinne sits sullenly and waits in a doctor’s stark examination room in Albuquerque, NM.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Exam Room Corinne waits, reading a magazine in her doctor’s tiny, windowless exam room.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Clowning Corinne, gowned and sucking on the ever-present doctor’s office candy, poses as though for a mug shot.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Down Claustrophobic in the windowless room and tired of waiting, Corinne quits pretending to be pleasant or present.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Glad to See Ya Corinne turns on the charm as the doctor arrives for her four o’clock appointment.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Know Your Stuff Corinne works at her computer a year before any sign of cancer (note the short haircut long before she lost her hair).	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Groshong A blue catheter tube exits a hole in Corinne’s chest, then splits into two valves which hang from her neck by a sunglasses string.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Results A shot of Corinne’s neck, sporting a biopsy scar, but no tumor, one week after her first session of chemotherapy.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Better A motion-blurred shot of the animated Corinne talking with her family in Germany after her first session of chemotherapy.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Go Away Corinne, sticking her tongue out, just before she has her head shaved (because the hair is falling out three weeks after chemo began).	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Just Do It Corinne, covering her eyes in fear, as the head shaving begins.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Wit Corinne’s first picture after her head is shaved, imitating a memorable scene in the movie, Wit (once again sticking out her tongue).	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Face It Corinne showing her natural beauty, shaved head and all, against the sky.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	The World The back of Corinne’s bald head as she looks at the sky over our desert land.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Peace Bald Corinne in a summer dress in her kitchen, taking time from cooking dinner to flash a peace sign.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	She Plants Bald Corinne, working hard in her garden to complete her autumn planting.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Something The horse, Sultan, sniffing Corinne’s bald head the first time he saw her after the shaving.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Roommates Corinne standing between the horses, Boy and Sultan (who live in the same corral at night).	Featuring: Corinne Wesley, Boy and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Talk Corinne and Sultan intensely looking into each other’s eyes as she talks.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	No Bananas Corinne with the blue-eyed horse, McCue, emphatically explaining that she has no more bananas.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and McCue Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Mares Corinne, surrounded by the mares in the pasture overlooking New Mexico’s Galisteo Basin.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley, Tryst, Corey and Firefly Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Getting Away Corinne, on a bright blue autumn day in northern New Mexico’s Cimarron Canyon taking a picture of me as I took a picture of her.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Near Cimarron, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Rocky Corinne, sunning her bald head, sitting on top of a rocky hill in New Mexico’s Rio Chama valley.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Near Abiquiu, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Beetle Corinne, squatting to shoot a picture and casting the shadow of a beetle, in NE Arizona on the Navajo reservation.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Near Bidahochi, AZ Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Birds Corinne leans close to talk with a Blue and Gold Macaw in Orlando, Florida’s Gatorland.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Orlando, FL Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Blood Work Corinne, with a bruise on her bald head, having blood drawn through her Groshong catheter at the cancer center.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sharon Richardson Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	In Bed Corinne, wearing her glasses to watch TV and a scarf to keep her neck warm, stoically sits in bed against her blue wall.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Forgetful Corinne, in a white t-shirt and sandals, fills a jug to water her pants. Err… no pants. Her plants.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Funny Corinne, wearing a yellow bandana headband and showing off her Groshong tubes, laughs beautifully.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Bad Days Corinne, small and out of focus, lies in pain under the pink quilt on her bed.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Good Days Corinne casts a long, early-morning shadow as she walks with her dogs to water the plants.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley with dogs She-ha and Lisa Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Pain This picture swirls Corinne’s head in pain as she lies in bed.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	More Blood Ylenia draws Corinne’s blood in the cancer center lab.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Ylenia Lorenzini Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Cry Corinne stands crying in her green bathroom as she looks at her sick and weak body in the mirror after a shower.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	More Days Corinne’s silhouetted face dominates the foreground as the picture focuses on shadows of plants cast on the blue wall in her bedroom.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Chemo Title Close-up on a hanging bag of red intravenous Adriamycin chemotherapy medicine superimposed with the words, “Chemotherapy is a mother."	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	First Class Dark picture of Corinne sleeping in a big chair under a blanket with her ubiquitous green pashmina under her head.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Waiting Corinne, sits against her green pashmina with her Groshong prominently displayed, pumping pre-chemo drugs.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Onc Nurses Regina Wright, oncology nurse, gets Corinne started on medications early on chemo day.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Regina Wright Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Pushing Drugs Regina forces a syringe full of medicine through the Groshong port; Corinne feels its effect immediately.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Regina Wright Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Adri Using a syringe with a needle, Regina infuses the saline IV bag with red Adriamycin: a potent and poisonous chemotherapy element.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Regina Wright Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Shadow Feeling the power of the Adriamycin, Corinne sleeps in the shadow of the red bag.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Lunch Corinne perks up with new interest when her Vietnamese spring rolls arrive for lunch. She offers the extras to the nurses.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	After Lunch Sated and happy, Corinne sits back and has an easy conversation after lunch.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Boring Corinne has finished her magazine and her lunch, yet she has hours to go before the chemo finishes dripping into her veins.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Naps Corinne surrenders to the boredom and sleeps for a while in the afternoon as the chemo drips.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Nearly After her nap, Corinne’s uneasiness ramps up again as the last bag of fluid empties into her.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Tired of It Agitated, Corinne waits her turn to be unhooked from the IV tubes, so she can go home at the end of the day.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Daily Shots A picture of the geometry of the busy Shot Clinic at the cancer center.	Featuring: New Mexico Cancer Center Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Again Linda prepares her needle’s target on the back of Corinne’s arm.	Featuring: Linda Marsh and Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Here It Comes Corinne prepares herself for the pain just before the needle stab.	Featuring: Linda Marsh and Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Hurts Corinne shakes her head back and forth in passive resistance as the stinging medicine begins to saturate her muscles.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Linda Marsh Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Slowly Resigned to the protracted flow of the burning potion, Corinne waits for it all to be over. (This is the picture that was cropped to make the portrait at the front of the book.)	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Linda Marsh Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Wanker With the end in sight, Corinne tells a joke, using her one free arm to gesture.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Linda Marsh Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Wait For Shoot Another day, another appointment with the needle; waiting for the pain to begin.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Once Again Using a different approach with the needle, Sylvia pumps up Corinne with blood building chemicals.	Featuring: Sylvianita Aguilar and Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Talking Toward the end of the ordeal, Corinne tells Sylvia the story of how it all started, and how the tumor went away after the first chemo session.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sylvianita Aguilar Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	To Spain Corinne with her dear friend, Dan, at his 2002 Memorial Day Party (over a year before the cancer was found).	Featuring: Dan Klausmeyer and Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Self Care Ellen (hands only) teaches Corinne to flush her own Groshong catheter.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Ellen Smart Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Le Sorelle Corinne stands in the middle of her adopted family in downtown Cerrillos, NM.	Featuring: Eda Simoni, Corinne Wesley and Corina Simoni Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Shots Again Sylvia gives Corinne one last shot before the trip to Spain.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sylvianita Aguilar Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	The Eyes Corinne stands naked before her beautifully painted copy of the Girl with Pearl Earrings; their eyes match.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Special Corinne waits in a wheelchair to board a Delta flight at the Albuquerque Sunport for the first leg of her trip to Spain.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Nick Our little Cairn terrier, Nick, chews a huge bone: his Christmas present in 2002.	Featuring: Nick Wesley Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2002 Camera: Nikon 990
	Oklahoma Dawn Driving through Oklahoma City at dawn on a frigid late December morning in 2003, I captured this stunning sunrise.	Featuring: Trees Place: Oklahoma City, OK Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Georgia Deer On a beautifully scenic mountain road between Chattanooga, TN, and Gainesville, GA, we saw this deer grazing on a front lawn.	Featuring: Deer Place: Near Ellijay, GA Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Farm Shadow Just down the road from the grazing deer (above), the shadows of these bare trees captured me.	Featuring: Shadows Place: Near Ellijay, GA Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Baldoff The annual Baldoff contest at the home of Pete and John McArthur.	Featuring: Wayne Wesley, Corinne Wesley, Doug Wesley Place: Lakeland, FL Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700, Photograph by Susannah Wesley
	Gatorland Corinne gawks at an incredible pile of alligators at Gatorland, between Orlando and Kissimmee, FL.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Orlando, FL Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Bird Talk Corinne works her magic to communicate with the flamingoes at Gatoraland.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Orlando, FL Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Road Home On the way through the bayous between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, LA, we stopped on a foggy morning and looked back from under the bridge.	Featuring: I-10 Bridge Place: Lafayette, LA Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	The Future One late afternoon, we found a small piece of land near a river that we thought we could love.	Featuring: Gate and Shadow Place: Blanco, TX Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	End of a Year We woke early on New Year’s Eve in Lubbock, TX, and caught this sunrise before making the last leg home that day.	Featuring: Sunrise Place: Lubbock, TX Date: 2003 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Scans Mike, t he x-ray technician checks the IV in Corinne’s arm before her CT Scan. This was a flash photo.	Featuring: Mike Matlack and Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Scan Techs Tracy Aragon, the PET Scan tech, allowed us to pose this flash photo after one of Corinne’s radiation treatments.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Albuquerque, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	In Limbo One of the snowiest days of the year in an unusually wet winter, we were lucky we had no place to go.	Featuring: Snow Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Delays Corinne stands (she never poses) in front of Soda Dam in the Jemez Valley in northern New Mexico.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley Place: Near Jemez Springs, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Horse Shadow Corinne stands close to Sultan seemingly casting no shadow, herself.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Horse Ears Corinne talks to Sultan before a workout and, clearly, he’s listening to her.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Round Pen Corinne warms up Sultan in the round pen before a short ride on a bright blue winter day.	Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan Place: Cerrillos, NM Date: 2004 Camera: Nikon 5700
	Winter Ride Corinne, bareback, r

Picture

Title: Description

Attributions

The New Yorker

Bald and bejeweled in the clinic waiting room, Corinne reads the magazine with very appropriate cover art: a man writing himself into a corner.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Half Full

Corinne, in a patterned sweater, holds a faceted glass of water. Closeup on the glass and hand.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

We Grew Up

Linda, nude with a fancy hairdo and heavy makeup, discretely holding her knees.

Featuring: Linda Wesley

Place: Tallahassee, FL

Date: 1968

Camera: Yashica MatEM

Unconventional

Young Linda with our three yearold daughter, Meredith, posing nude in a steamer trunk.

Featuring: Linda Wesley and
Meredith Wesley

Place: Lakeland, FL

Date: 1973

Camera: Yashica Mat-EM

Courage

Linda in her last years, balded by chemo and radiation and bloated by prednisone, smiling bravely.

Featuring: Linda Wesley

Place: Lakeland, FL

Date: 2000

Camera: Cannon ELPH 370Z

Portrait

A close-up of Corinne, bald head cropped, with her wedding ring prominently featured.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Homely Sage

A shot of our adobe-looking house from very low to very high with a foreground full of purple Russian Sage and a background full of sky.

Featuring: Our Home

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2001

Camera: Nikon 990

At the Spring

Corinne stands as her horse, Sultan, grazes by a spring in a canyon near our home in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Monument Valley

Corinne from behind as she takes a picture of towering structures Monument Valley on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Near Kayenta, Arizona

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Stalking

Corinne crouches in a dawn-lit Aspen grove in Utah’s Ashley National Forest to take pictures of white columbines.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: North of Vernal, Utah

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Go

From behind, Corinne rides Sultan quickly up a hill near our home toward a bright blue New Mexican sky.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

With Foal

Corinne pets the mom and her three hour-old foal at Peter Bassin’s Rhino Ranch in Cerrillos, NM.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley, Sarah and Firefly

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

With Crow

Corinne crouches to communicate with a crow in Canyonlands National Park.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Moab, Utah

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

With Lobo

At sunset, Corinne sets up on our front porch to take a picture of a neighbor’s dog who is visiting.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Lobo

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

With Deer

Corinne kneels, asking four deer to come closer in Canyonlands National park near Moab, Utah.

Featuring:Corinne Wesley

Place: Moab, Utah

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Mental Floss

Corinne poses in front of a very flat summer rainbow on our deck in Cerrillos, NM.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Lump

A close-up of the mass in Corinne’s neck weeks before it was diagnosed as Lymphoma.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Doctors

Corinne sits sullenly and waits in a doctor’s stark examination room in Albuquerque, NM.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Exam Room

Corinne waits, reading a magazine in her doctor’s tiny, windowless exam room.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Clowning

Corinne, gowned and sucking on the ever-present doctor’s office candy, poses as though for a mug shot.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Down

Claustrophobic in the windowless room and tired of waiting, Corinne quits pretending to be pleasant or present.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Glad to See Ya

Corinne turns on the charm as the doctor arrives for her four o’clock appointment.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Know Your Stuff

Corinne works at her computer a year before any sign of cancer (note the short haircut long before she lost her hair).

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Groshong

A blue catheter tube exits a hole in Corinne’s chest, then splits into two valves which hang from her neck by a sunglasses string.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Results

A shot of Corinne’s neck, sporting a biopsy scar, but no tumor, one week after her first session of chemotherapy.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Better

A motion-blurred shot of the animated Corinne talking with her family in Germany after her first session of chemotherapy.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Go Away

Corinne, sticking her tongue out, just before she has her head shaved (because the hair is falling out three weeks after chemo began).

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Just Do It

Corinne, covering her eyes in fear, as the head shaving begins.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Wit

Corinne’s first picture after her head is shaved, imitating a memorable scene in the movie, Wit (once again sticking out her tongue).

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Face It

Corinne showing her natural beauty, shaved head and all, against the sky.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

The World

The back of Corinne’s bald head as she looks at the sky over our desert land.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Peace

Bald Corinne in a summer dress in her kitchen, taking time from cooking dinner to flash a peace sign.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

She Plants

Bald Corinne, working hard in her garden to complete her autumn planting.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Something

The horse, Sultan, sniffing Corinne’s bald head the first time he saw her after the shaving.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Roommates

Corinne standing between the horses, Boy and Sultan (who live in the same corral at night).

Featuring: Corinne Wesley, Boy and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Talk

Corinne and Sultan intensely looking into each other’s eyes as she talks.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

No Bananas

Corinne with the blue-eyed horse, McCue, emphatically explaining that she has no more bananas.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and McCue

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Mares

Corinne, surrounded by the mares in the pasture overlooking New Mexico’s Galisteo Basin.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley, Tryst, Corey and Firefly

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Getting Away

Corinne, on a bright blue autumn day in northern New Mexico’s Cimarron Canyon taking a picture of me as I took a picture of her.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Near Cimarron, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Rocky

Corinne, sunning her bald head, sitting on top of a rocky hill in New Mexico’s Rio Chama valley.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Near Abiquiu, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Beetle

Corinne, squatting to shoot a picture and casting the shadow of a beetle, in NE Arizona on the Navajo reservation.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Near Bidahochi, AZ

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Birds

Corinne leans close to talk with a Blue and Gold Macaw in Orlando, Florida’s Gatorland.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Orlando, FL

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Blood Work

Corinne, with a bruise on her bald head, having blood drawn through her Groshong catheter at the cancer center.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sharon Richardson

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

In Bed

Corinne, wearing her glasses to watch TV and a scarf to keep her neck warm, stoically sits in bed against her blue wall.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Forgetful

Corinne, in a white t-shirt and sandals, fills a jug to water her pants. Err… no pants. Her plants.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Funny

Corinne, wearing a yellow bandana headband and showing off her Groshong tubes, laughs beautifully.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Bad Days

Corinne, small and out of focus, lies in pain under the pink quilt on her bed.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Good Days

Corinne casts a long, early-morning shadow as she walks with her dogs to water the plants.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley with dogs She-ha and Lisa

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Pain

This picture swirls Corinne’s head in pain as she lies in bed.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

More Blood

Ylenia draws Corinne’s blood in the cancer center lab.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Ylenia Lorenzini

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Cry

Corinne stands crying in her green bathroom as she looks at her sick and weak body in the mirror after a shower.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

More Days

Corinne’s silhouetted face dominates the foreground as the picture focuses on shadows of plants cast on the blue wall in her bedroom.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Chemo Title

Close-up on a hanging bag of red intravenous Adriamycin chemotherapy medicine superimposed with the words, “Chemotherapy is a mother."

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

First Class

Dark picture of Corinne sleeping in a big chair under a blanket with her ubiquitous green pashmina under her head.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Waiting

Corinne, sits against her green pashmina with her Groshong prominently displayed, pumping pre-chemo drugs.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Onc Nurses

Regina Wright, oncology nurse, gets Corinne started on medications early on chemo day.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Regina Wright

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Pushing Drugs

Regina forces a syringe full of medicine through the Groshong port; Corinne feels its effect immediately.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Regina Wright

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Adri

Using a syringe with a needle, Regina infuses the saline IV bag with red Adriamycin: a potent and poisonous chemotherapy element.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Regina Wright

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Shadow

Feeling the power of the Adriamycin, Corinne sleeps in the shadow of the red bag.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Lunch

Corinne perks up with new interest when her Vietnamese spring rolls arrive for lunch. She offers the extras to the nurses.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

After Lunch

Sated and happy, Corinne sits back and has an easy conversation after lunch.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Boring

Corinne has finished her magazine and her lunch, yet she has hours to go before the chemo finishes dripping into her veins.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Naps

Corinne surrenders to the boredom and sleeps for a while in the afternoon as the chemo drips.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Nearly

After her nap, Corinne’s uneasiness ramps up again as the last bag of fluid empties into her.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Tired of It

Agitated, Corinne waits her turn to be unhooked from the IV tubes, so she can go home at the end of the day.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Daily Shots

A picture of the geometry of the busy Shot Clinic at the cancer center.

Featuring: New Mexico Cancer Center

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Again

Linda prepares her needle’s target on the back of Corinne’s arm.

Featuring: Linda Marsh and
Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Here It Comes

Corinne prepares herself for the pain just before the needle stab.

Featuring: Linda Marsh and
Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Hurts

Corinne shakes her head back and forth in passive resistance as the stinging medicine begins to saturate her muscles.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Linda Marsh

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Slowly

Resigned to the protracted flow of the burning potion, Corinne waits for it all to be over. (This is the picture that was cropped to make the portrait at the front of the book.)

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Linda Marsh

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Wanker

With the end in sight, Corinne tells a joke, using her one free arm to gesture.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Linda Marsh

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Wait For Shoot

Another day, another appointment with the needle; waiting for the pain to begin.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Once Again

Using a different approach with the needle, Sylvia pumps up Corinne with blood building chemicals.

Featuring: Sylvianita Aguilar and Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Talking

Toward the end of the ordeal, Corinne tells Sylvia the story of how it all started, and how the tumor went away after the first chemo session.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sylvianita Aguilar

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

To Spain

Corinne with her dear friend, Dan, at his 2002 Memorial Day Party (over a year before the cancer was found).

Featuring: Dan Klausmeyer and Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Self Care

Ellen (hands only) teaches Corinne to flush her own Groshong catheter.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Ellen Smart

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Le Sorelle

Corinne stands in the middle of her adopted family in downtown Cerrillos, NM.

Featuring: Eda Simoni, Corinne Wesley and Corina Simoni

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Shots Again

Sylvia gives Corinne one last shot before the trip to Spain.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sylvianita Aguilar

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

The Eyes

Corinne stands naked before her beautifully painted copy of the Girl with Pearl Earrings; their eyes match.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Special

Corinne waits in a wheelchair to board a Delta flight at the Albuquerque Sunport for the first leg of her trip to Spain.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Nick

Our little Cairn terrier, Nick, chews a huge bone: his Christmas present in 2002.

Featuring: Nick Wesley

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2002

Camera: Nikon 990

Oklahoma Dawn

Driving through Oklahoma City at dawn on a frigid late December morning in 2003, I captured this stunning sunrise.

Featuring: Trees

Place: Oklahoma City, OK

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Georgia Deer

On a beautifully scenic mountain road between Chattanooga, TN, and Gainesville, GA, we saw this deer grazing on a front lawn.

Featuring: Deer

Place: Near Ellijay, GA

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Farm Shadow

Just down the road from the grazing deer (above), the shadows of these bare trees captured me.

Featuring: Shadows

Place: Near Ellijay, GA

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Baldoff

The annual Baldoff contest at the home of Pete and John McArthur.

Featuring: Wayne Wesley, Corinne Wesley, Doug Wesley

Place: Lakeland, FL

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700, Photograph by Susannah Wesley

Gatorland

Corinne gawks at an incredible pile of alligators at Gatorland, between Orlando and Kissimmee, FL.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Orlando, FL

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Bird Talk

Corinne works her magic to communicate with the flamingoes at Gatoraland.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Orlando, FL

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Road Home

On the way through the bayous between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, LA, we stopped on a foggy morning and looked back from under the bridge.

Featuring: I-10 Bridge

Place: Lafayette, LA

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

The Future

One late afternoon, we found a small piece of land near a river that we thought we could love.

Featuring: Gate and Shadow

Place: Blanco, TX

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

End of a Year

We woke early on New Year’s Eve in Lubbock, TX, and caught this sunrise before making the last leg home that day.

Featuring: Sunrise

Place: Lubbock, TX

Date: 2003

Camera: Nikon 5700

Scans

Mike, t he x-ray technician checks the IV in Corinne’s arm before her CT Scan. This was a flash photo.

Featuring: Mike Matlack and
Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Scan Techs

Tracy Aragon, the PET Scan tech, allowed us to pose this flash photo after one of Corinne’s radiation treatments.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Albuquerque, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

In Limbo

One of the snowiest days of the year in an unusually wet winter, we were lucky we had no place to go.

Featuring: Snow

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Delays

Corinne stands (she never poses) in front of Soda Dam in the Jemez Valley in northern New Mexico.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley

Place: Near Jemez Springs, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Horse Shadow

Corinne stands close to Sultan seemingly casting no shadow, herself.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Horse Ears

Corinne talks to Sultan before a workout and, clearly, he’s listening to her.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Round Pen

Corinne warms up Sultan in the round pen before a short ride on a bright blue winter day.

Featuring: Corinne Wesley and Sultan

Place: Cerrillos, NM

Date: 2004

Camera: Nikon 5700

Winter Ride

Corinne, bareback, r