Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond

Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond was inspired by the tradition of family photography. It is an intimate portrait of the photographers identical twin sister Jess and her partner Stan. These photos are frozen moments of their daily life; they have two aims in mind. Firstly, to explore visually how the couple’s relationship “works”: in particular, how they negotiate the differences between them (age, background) and how they try to disengage from social pressures and fixed stereotypes of who they are, and what roles they occupy. And secondly, to challenge our assumptions about, health, illness and bodies by documenting their experience of living with their respective chronic illnesses - Lupus (SLE) and Parkinson’s Disease. Jennie Gunhammar, born 1975 in Vakjo, Sweden, lives in London. This is Jennie’s first major project following her completion of a MA in documentary photography at LCC in 2007.