NPR

Two artists crossed generational lines to create a visual record called 'TRIALS'

In TRIALS, photographer Andrés Mario de Varona collaborated with Marcia Reifman, a survivor of stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, to create images that acknowledge the self as a living memorial.

I had never heard a voice like Marcia Reifman's before — androgynous, earthy, slow and poised. Full of mystery. But she didn't always sound like this.

The day we met in 2020, we were seated next to each other at a Photo Club gathering at the Vista Grande Public Library in Santa Fe, N.M., just a few months after I moved there from my hometown of Miami, Fla.

I was 23 at the time and she was 74, but it felt like she was of my generation, not just in appearance — she sported all-black Chuck Taylor All Stars and her hair was braided in colorful ties — but

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