September 2 - December 3, 2022
From San Antonio Center of Photography:
“The exhibition is being presented by The San Antonio Center of Photography, Be The Match, and the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center (STBTC), subsidiaries.
The San Antonio community continues to support local cancer patient and photographer Reg Campbell, which was originally slated for an exhibition of his work at Southwest School of Art’s Urschel Gallery from Mar. 21 – Apr. 21, 2020. The same week the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition “Septua” chronicles Campbell’s journey with cancer through his photography.
Reg Campbell was in his late 30s when he discovered he had leukemia. The photographer was ready to fight and determined to document the process. With his cameras in tow, he began photographing his hospital stays, chemo treatments, and precious time at home with his wife and young daughter. He called the series Septua, from the Latin word for seven, referring to his initial seven weeks of chemotherapy and seven months of intermittent hospital stays. After receiving a bone marrow transplant from his sister, he went into remission, but a year later, cancer came back and again a year after that, in November 2019. He died on May 15, 2020.
Throughout the last years of his life, he shot and shared striking and honest photos. When he started the project, he wrote that he wanted to show what leukemia was like. “Cancer is an anyone disease; anyone from any walk of life can get it. No one is immune. I feel it is my job to show others that having leukemia isn’t what the TV shows and movies say it is,” he wrote.
“Septua is an ongoing personal project I started in my first run with cancer in 2017,” said Campbell. “Finding a visual representation of leukemia is very hard. Septua gives future patients a visual idea of what they will be going through.”
As Campbell searched for a marrow donor to save his life, he continued to require blood transfusions as part of cancer treatments. He hoped his exhibition would raise awareness about joining the Be The Match Registry and donating blood for cancer patients like him.
Be The Match is a national database that connects potential donors to patients in need of a stem cell or marrow transplant. Like Campbell, African American patients with blood cancers have a lower chance of finding a matching donor who could give them a stem cell or marrow transplant, their best hope for a cure. To receive a transplant, patients must find a donor who closely matches the genetic tissue typing of their immune system, which is inherited from a person’s ethnic background.
No matches were available when Campbell was first diagnosed in 2017, so he received a 50% match transplant from his sister. Campbell relapsed several times before passing away on May 15, 2020. He was, unfortunately, unable to find a perfect match to beat his cancer and return home to his wife and daughter.
Campbell was known for shooting on film in a digital age, and he’d been commissioned to work for brands and media outlets, including Nike, Target, Garden & Gun, and Texas Monthly. He also shot many weddings and moving personal projects. He was a popular figure in the local photography community, well-liked, and well respected.
San Antonians aged 18-44 and in general good health can join the registry by completing a cheek swab kit. Kits can be picked up at any of the STBTC donor rooms or at monthly blood drive pop-ups at The Photo Center during the exhibition duration.”
Reception: September 2, 2022 | 6–9 pm
San Antonio Center of Photography
724 South Alamo Street, Suite 3
San Antonio, 78205 Texas
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