Chiara - a Journey into Light

This is an artist’s book on illness and dying. Elisabeth Zahnd, artist and photographer, had to experience and bear the fatal illness and death of her child, who was diagnosed of an incurable brain tumour at the age of five. Zahnd soon started not only to accompany as a caring mother the child’s long ordeal, but also to document as an artist the transition and transfiguration of this young human being. She never exploits the child’s suffering for her artistic project, though. Even in close-up she keeps a distance and the child’s privacy. Two essays accompany the images. One is on the artistic and art historical context of Elisabeth Zahnd’s portraits of Chiara. The second, philosophical-ethical text is about illness, dying and death and the our related fears and emotions. Created out of personal affection, this photographic essay reaches beyond an individual destiny. Its images touch on the question of how we deal with suffering and death. But they are also about life, warmth and security, and love. The book also aims at helping to take away the taboo from these important issues concerning everyone. Text in English and German.