INTERSTICES emerges from my decade-long experience of living with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative condition for which there is no cure.
Over these years, I have learned to live with the gradual changes in my body, such as the slowing of movement and the loss of balance, as well as the less visible dimensions of the disease: fear, anxiety, disorientation, and the shifting terrains of memory and cognition.
These inner experiences shape daily life as profoundly as the physical symptoms.
Photography is the place where I meet these realities. Instinctively, through the camera, I bring what is internal into view—to witness it, wrestle with it, and share it. Whether carefully composed or discovered unexpectedly, each image reflects my attempt to make sense of change and to navigate the continual oscillation between vulnerability and resilience, certainty and ambiguity.
As Parkinson’s and aging converge, I find myself drawn to the spaces where their boundaries blur. The title INTERSTICES speaks to these in-between places: the narrow openings where uncertainty and possibility coexist, where loss can reveal unexpected beauty, and where perception itself becomes an act of endurance.
Current research in neuroaesthetics suggests that creating and engaging with art can foster neuroplasticity and support brain health. While I find hope in that possibility, my practice is ultimately driven by the impulse to keep looking, to remain curious, and to discover meaning within the evolving scope of my experience.
Each photograph is both an inquiry and an affirmation. Together, they chart not only the evolving contours of illness, but also the adaptability and resilience that can emerge as I learn to inhabit the spaces between what is fading and what is still becoming.
About Torrance York
Torrance York is a lens-based artist and educator whose photographs transform often-overlooked moments of everyday life into spaces for reflection, inviting viewers to contemplate universal themes of perception, identity, and the unknown.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, she examines the shifts in perception and identity that come with a chronic illness in her monograph Semaphore (Kehrer Verlag, 2022), using photography as a tool for reflection and communication. Her current series, Interstices, continues this investigation by focusing on the less visible, non-motor dimensions of PD and the concurrent realities of aging.
York’s work has been featured in leading photography publications and Parkinson’s-focused media, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Updates and LensCulture’s recent spotlight, “Women Shaping Photography Today.” In addition to presenting at art institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, she has spoken at the 2023 World Parkinson Congress in Barcelona, to Parkinson’s support groups, and at prominent medical schools in the US, addressing the intersection of art, illness, and her lived experience.
York earned a BA from Yale and an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. Collections holding her photographs include the Addison Gallery of American Art, Danforth Art Museum, and the Fine Art Collection at Montefiore Einstein, NY. She was an artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, and received a Connecticut Artist Fellowship grant in 2010. Rick Wester Fine Art represents her work, and she is a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists.
Since 2001, she has served on the board of Educational Video Center, a youth media organization in New York City where she formerly taught documentary video. She is also on the advisory board of Fotophase, a nonprofit exploring photography’s potential as a neuroarts practice to support well-being, self-discovery, and human connection. [Official Website]
