Francesca Giaitzoglou Watkinson

Nama is an integrative project that explores the artist’s personal journey and healing process after being diagnosed with lymphoma. Inspired by the root word of the illness (lympha), borrowed from ancient Greek “nymph,” she focuses on the intersection of mythology and medicine, using the Greek Naiads, nymphs of rivers, streams, and wells, as symbols of life’s hidden currents.

Lymphoma, a disease of the body’s inner waterways, parallels the Naiads’ realm; both invisible yet essential forces that sustain life.Combining documentary photography, research, illustration, and text, the project transforms the clinical into the mythical through symbolic, staged representations and medical imagery, presenting the body as a sacred aquatic environment where the rivers of health and illness converge.

From diagnosis to treatment, loss to hope, the Naiads, both healers and mourners, accompany and guide the photographer and the viewers through this period of uncertainty.