Infusion (2/18/2022)
Archival Pigment Print on 48 gram Washi Paper
Created February 18th, 2022
24” x 36”
Edition of 5 + 2 APs
Sara J. Winston
“Chronic illness is often perceived as a personal misfortune and private matter, making it taboo to speak publicly about medical diagnoses, symptoms, treatments, and the financial burden of ongoing care. My art practice debunks this notion, transforming the conventional lived experience of illness into a space for creativity, dialogue, and connection. As an artist and patient knowingly living with Multiple Sclerosis since 2014, I make photographs, often self portraits, to help navigate the blurry, layered boundaries, between care and dependency, amidst vulnerability and agency. These images are rooted in the rhythm of my monthly and biannual intravenous immunosuppressive treatments, the series transforms moments into meditations on time, care, and survival.
The hospital infusion center, where my photographs are situated, is a space of profound contradiction. It is a space dominated by medical authority and systemic routines, and yet deeply personal and emotionally charged. Reflecting larger societal dynamics of visibility and invisibility, non-normative bodies are often erased or reduced to passive objects of care. Through my images I claim these spaces, asserting agency, creativity, and humanity.
Caregiving, particularly as a mother and patient, is central to my work. My images critique cultural expectations around dependency and emotional labor, especially as they relate to women. I explore the power dynamics of medical spaces, where authority often reinforces patient vulnerability. Yet, my photographs also reveal moments of solidarity—quiet glances, shared gestures—that create unspoken networks of empathy and support. And so, I transform infusions themselves into fueling resistance and resilience. My work disrupts cultural taboos around illness, celebrating non-normative bodies and fostering new dialogues about the complexities of care, survival, and identity.”
Sara J. Winston is a photographer and writer based in New York. She produces photographs for books and exhibitions, she writes creative-nonfiction, and makes hybrid image-text photobooks to describe and respond to chronic illness and its ongoing impact on her body, mind, family, and memory. She is the author of several books, among them: Too Visceral to be Intelligent (self published, 2026), Sugar Honey Iced Tea (For the Birds Trapped in Airports, 2025), Foibles & Avoidance (National Monument Press, 2024), A Lick and a Promise (Candor Arts, 2017), and Homesick (Zatara Press, 2015).
Sara is Associate Director and Artist in Residence of the Photography Program at Bard College; Co-Chair of the Penumbra Foundation/Image Threads Long Term Photobook Program; and a contributing writer at Collector Daily . She has received numerous awards and honors, including recent grants from Arts Mid Hudson of New York and the Puffin Foundation.
On June 29, 2023, her long-term project about multiple sclerosis care was adapted and published as an op-ed in the New York Times, titled ‘My body is a clock’: The Private Life of Chronic Care.
Infusion (2/18/2022)
Archival Pigment Print on 48 gram Washi Paper
Created February 18th, 2022
24” x 36”
Edition of 5 + 2 APs
Sara J. Winston
“Chronic illness is often perceived as a personal misfortune and private matter, making it taboo to speak publicly about medical diagnoses, symptoms, treatments, and the financial burden of ongoing care. My art practice debunks this notion, transforming the conventional lived experience of illness into a space for creativity, dialogue, and connection. As an artist and patient knowingly living with Multiple Sclerosis since 2014, I make photographs, often self portraits, to help navigate the blurry, layered boundaries, between care and dependency, amidst vulnerability and agency. These images are rooted in the rhythm of my monthly and biannual intravenous immunosuppressive treatments, the series transforms moments into meditations on time, care, and survival.
The hospital infusion center, where my photographs are situated, is a space of profound contradiction. It is a space dominated by medical authority and systemic routines, and yet deeply personal and emotionally charged. Reflecting larger societal dynamics of visibility and invisibility, non-normative bodies are often erased or reduced to passive objects of care. Through my images I claim these spaces, asserting agency, creativity, and humanity.
Caregiving, particularly as a mother and patient, is central to my work. My images critique cultural expectations around dependency and emotional labor, especially as they relate to women. I explore the power dynamics of medical spaces, where authority often reinforces patient vulnerability. Yet, my photographs also reveal moments of solidarity—quiet glances, shared gestures—that create unspoken networks of empathy and support. And so, I transform infusions themselves into fueling resistance and resilience. My work disrupts cultural taboos around illness, celebrating non-normative bodies and fostering new dialogues about the complexities of care, survival, and identity.”
Sara J. Winston is a photographer and writer based in New York. She produces photographs for books and exhibitions, she writes creative-nonfiction, and makes hybrid image-text photobooks to describe and respond to chronic illness and its ongoing impact on her body, mind, family, and memory. She is the author of several books, among them: Too Visceral to be Intelligent (self published, 2026), Sugar Honey Iced Tea (For the Birds Trapped in Airports, 2025), Foibles & Avoidance (National Monument Press, 2024), A Lick and a Promise (Candor Arts, 2017), and Homesick (Zatara Press, 2015).
Sara is Associate Director and Artist in Residence of the Photography Program at Bard College; Co-Chair of the Penumbra Foundation/Image Threads Long Term Photobook Program; and a contributing writer at Collector Daily . She has received numerous awards and honors, including recent grants from Arts Mid Hudson of New York and the Puffin Foundation.
On June 29, 2023, her long-term project about multiple sclerosis care was adapted and published as an op-ed in the New York Times, titled ‘My body is a clock’: The Private Life of Chronic Care.
