(Photo credit: John Beaver, “Silvia 1”)

At times the physical components of a photograph speak volumes about the subject of the image contained within. Here, the peeling emulsion of John Beaver’s portrait echoes the ordeal of radiation treatment.

In his own words:

Silvia 1 is the first in a series of five portraits of Silvia and the mask she used as part of her treatment for a brain aneurysm.  She is posed but only generally so, the details having been left up to her.  I seem to gravitate toward tension in my photography — between the intentional and the accidental…

And so in Silvia 1 the failed part of the long-out-of-date and discontinued Polaroid emulsion cuts into Silvia’s head from behind, and the natural but slightly awkward position of her hand suggests far more than I ever could have consciously schemed before tripping the shutter.

See more of John’s work here