Frida Forever

Frida Forever by Frida Lisa Carstensen Jersø, a photobook exploring life with chronic illness contrasted with the freedom of youth. The book intertwines photographic self-portraits and staged compositions with energetic snapshots in an original work that uses a raw yet playful photographic style to tell a powerful, personal, and vulnerable story.

In 2012, Frida leaned against a railing on a bridge, which broke, causing her to fall 4.5 meters onto asphalt, breaking her back. Since then, she has been paraplegic and reliant on a wheelchair. In 2018, doctors discovered she also has a cellular abnormality that causes the formation of large, dead calcium deposits. As a result, she has spent much of her adult life in and out of hospitals, undergoing more than 100 surgeries, along with numerous medical treatments and radiation therapy.

During her many hospital stays, she has photographed herself, the hospital space, and her surroundings. The raw and tender images are juxtaposed with depictions of her transition from youth to adulthood, poignantly illustrating the stark duality between freedom and the constraints of illness—a kind of double-edged freedom versus the finite and impermanent state of “being healthy.” With a sharp and intelligent perspective, Frida uses her visual narrative to embrace the experience of being alive and the vulnerability of the human body. The book offers a glimpse into the sick yet capable body, standing at the crossroads of being ill, young, and both simultaneously.