LSU photography student documents mother’s cancer battle

When her mother was diagnosed with cancer in May 2014, Allison Ballard was shocked by how many people would brush off the news after learning it was “just” breast cancer.

It was no big deal, people would tell her—women survive breast cancer all the time.

And yes, as of our late November interview, her mother Nancy had been in remission for 11 months. But it’s not all pink ribbons and cute slogans for the Ballards, and 24-year-old Allison has the photos to prove it.

A BFA student in photography at LSU, Ballard has spent the time since her mother’s diagnosis capturing the illness, treatment and recovery on film. She’s always admired and emulated the slice-of-life documentation style of photographers like Sally Mann and Vivian Maier, but this task was a bigger challenge than any creative project she’s taken on before.

The instinct to document came from two places: her wish to remember each moment, in case it was the last, and her desire to depict the reality of cancer to a world that she believes has become all too casual about the disease.

“Every shot is pure documentary,” Ballard says. “That was the hardest part. I’d come [into her room] and say, ‘How are you feeling?’ And I’d see her laying in bed, nauseated, not feeling well. And I’m like, ‘Hold that. I have to go get my camera.’”

Some of the photos are difficult to look at, showing raw radiation burns on her mother’s breasts or a moment hunched over the toilet, sick from chemotherapy. One shows the scarred indentation where a lump was surgically removed from the breast at the beginning of the treatment process.

But others are triumphant, powerful visions of a woman determined to fight for her life. One photo, Ballard’s favorite, shows her mother gazing serenely ahead as her head is shaved, a soft smile and a look of steady strength and peace in her eyes that still fills Ballard with awe. The series has brought the pair, already best friends, even closer.

Near the end of November, Ballard shows the series in an exhibition at Chelsea’s Cafe ahead of her final thesis presentation. The turnout is strong, and Ballard’s mother caters it herself with homemade cookies, eager to support her daughter’s moment. It is a big moment for this survivor, too—a sort of victory lap. Mother and daughter stand the same as the series’ title: “Side by Side.”

A week after the show, Ballard calls back to deliver the news that her mother’s cancer has returned.

This is how fast life can change with cancer, Ballard says—full remission and a positive prognosis to a double mastectomy within days. Though Ballard and her family are devastated, their spirit is still strong. Ballard still graduates in December. Life must keep moving, and so must they. The photo series, too, will continue.

Ballard says the project has helped her mom cope with the process. At times, they had fun with it, like when her mom asked to shave the first strip of hair from her own head.

“I was photographing her shaving her head, and she stopped, and we all—me, my dad and my brother—kind of stopped,” Ballard says. “I stopped taking pictures, and she was like, ‘What? Is there a weird spot?’ And we were like, ‘No, it’s weird that you don’t look weird. You look beautiful.’”