Published by Hatje Cantz. Preface by Suejin Shin. Text by Francois Hébel.
South Korean surgeon Jason Sangik Noh specializes in cancer treatment. Parallel to his medical career, he pursues photography. Biography of Cancer, a mixture of hand-written diagnoses, analysis results, graphs and photos, combines a scientific approach to patients with a sensitive awareness of their humanity, with glimpses of their daily life and interests. The book is presented in the form of visual compositions in an unprecedented genre, a true practitioner’s notebook combining scientific detachment with warm-hearted empathy. Noh began the work in 2008, when, as he testifies, "about eight million humans around the world died of cancer. With this sobering statistic, I started this work ... it’s about the encounter with cancer, dramatic treatments, euphoric success, tragic failure, deaths and the relentless battle by doctors, researchers, patients and concerned people. It is also a meditation on illness, medical ethics and the complex, intertwining lives of concerned people."