Defying Cancer & Embracing Life
- Cancer survivor Jeff Bridges is resurrecting the legendary Widelux camera, blending its classic analog design with modern innovation in a first prototype. Through his company SilverBridges, Bridges has unveiled the 2025 WIDELUX•X.
- Bridges, famous for playing Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski in the 1998 comedy “The Big Lebowski,” was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2020. After undergoing chemotherapy, he was declared in remission in September 2021.
- Lymphoma can also be treated through monitoring, radiation, or bone marrow transplantation.
- Experts recommend those facing cancer should find activities that bring them joy, like Bridges has done with photography.
“Some new s**t has come to light, man! Check out our first prototype… click link in bio – wideluxx.com,” Bridges wrote on Instagram this week, while SilverBridges, a company co-founded by actor and dedicated to bringing the Widelux panoramic film camera back to life.
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Bridges’ prototype announcement comes about two years after he took to social media to share he was involved with the Widelux Revival Project!
He captioned the post, “My wife Sue & I, along with the folks at @SilvergrainClassics, are bringing back this iconic panoramic camera. Why bring back a film camera in 2023? Because it’s cool!
“You can read more about it at jeffbridges.com/latest, and the whole story and some photos Sue and I have made are in the magazine.”
On his website, Bridges reveals that he has been passionate about photography and filmmaking since his teenage years.
He says, “I started taking pictures in high school. I set up a darkroom and would lose track of time, developing and printing for hours and hours, listening to FM radio in the red ‘safe light’. I must say, I never really enjoyed developing negatives. It’s probably the most important part of the whole process, but what I loved was the printing – watching those images come out of the ‘soup.’
“Seeing that proof sheet of those pictures I’d taken weeks before and forgotten all about – that’s what I loved. To this day, looking at a proof sheet for the first time is like opening a Christmas present I’ve given to myself. What a great surprise – to see what the camera saw; what worked and what didn’t; to feel the moment of the picture all over again.”
Bridges explained that photography took a pause once his acting career gained momentum, and he didn’t return to it seriously until 1976 while working on the “King Kong” remake.
He continued, “The Wide-Lux came back into my life on my wedding day. Mark Hanauer took some photographs at our wedding party with one. I really admired them – the way they showed movement and slurred time. There was so much information in the picture – so much to look at. It’s almost as if the camera has peripheral vision – registering multiple stories within a single frame.
RELATED: ‘Love at First Sight,’ Says Actor & Lymphoma Survivor Jeff Bridges of His Wife of 45 Years
“The Wide-Lux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn’t accurate, and there’s no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that. It’s something I aspire to in all my work — a lack of preciousness that makes things more human and honest, a willingness to receive what’s there in the moment, and to let go of the result.
A majority of Bridges’ photography is done with a Widelux. He uses the 35mm model, which has a 28mm lens capable of panning nearly 180 degrees. Rather than a traditional shutter, the camera employs a slit that exposes the film as the lens moves across the scene.
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Jeff Bridges’ Cancer Battle
Jeff Bridges was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2020 and started chemotherapy treatment right away. Although Bridges hasn’t personally specified which type of lymphoma he was diagnosed with, AARP noted that his cancer was, in fact, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer of a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the immune system. It’s also interesting to note there are more than 40 different types of lymphoma.
While cancer treatment was going well, he was also diagnosed with COVID-19 in January 2021, and due to his cancer treatment having weakened his immune system, Bridges wound up spending months in the hospital.
According to AARP, Bridges’ cancer went into remission quickly after he was put through chemotherapy infusion, which was followed by an oral chemo protocol.
He dubbed his wife his “absolute champion” as she stayed by Bridges’ side as he recovered from covid in the hospital. “She really fought to keep me off a ventilator. I didn’t want to be on it, and the doctors didn’t necessarily want that. But Sue was adamant,” he told the news outlet.
He was ultimately treated with a blood plasma called “convalescent plasma,” which consists of viral antibodies.
Expert Resources On Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- All about Biopsies for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- Bispecific Antibodies Deliver One-Two Punch to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- CAR T-Cell Therapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- Could New Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Drugs Mean Less Chemo in the Future?
- Drug Cocktail Helps Keep Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Under Control
- Here’s What Radiation Is Like for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma- And The Standard of Care
- How I Found the Strength to Keep Going While Fighting Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
- Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment — and Beyond
Despite his struggle, like so many cancer survivors, Bridges was left with a renewed appreciation for life after the experience.
“I’ll be honest. I didn’t know if I was going to make it,” he told Esquire in an earlier interview. “I was on death’s door there for a while in the hospital. When I finally went back to work, after a two-year hiatus, it was the most bizarre kind of thing. It felt like a dream.”
“I came back after all that time, and saw the same faces [while shooting ‘The Old Man’], the same cast and crew,” he added. “It was like we had a long weekend. I gathered everyone and I said, ‘I had the most bizarre dream, you guys.’ I was sick and out, but all that feels like a gray mush now.”
Sneaky Lymphoma Symptoms Often Lead to a Late Diagnosis
When it comes to understanding lymphoma, Dr. Elise Chong, a medical oncologist at Penn Medicine, previously told SurvivorNet, “Lymphoma is split up into a number of different categories.
“The first distinguishing breakpoint, if you will, is non-Hodgkin lymphoma versus Hodgkin lymphoma … and those sound like two different categories. But non-Hodgkin lymphoma comprises the majority of lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma is a single specific type of lymphoma.”
Hodgkin lymphoma has distinctive, giant cells called Reed-Sternberg cells. The presence of these cells, which can be seen under a microscope, will help your doctor determine which of the two lymphoma types you have.
There are a few other important differences between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma to note. For one thing, non-Hodgkin lymphoma is much more common. And you’re more likely to be diagnosed with it after age 55, like Bridges. People usually develop Hodgkin lymphoma at a younger age.
Another difference between these two types of lymphoma is that non-Hodgkin lymphoma is more likely to spread in a random fashion and be found in different groups of lymph nodes in the body, while Hodgkin lymphoma is more likely to grow in a uniform way from one group of lymph nodes directly to another.
These two different types of lymphoma behave, spread and respond to treatment differently.
Advice For Starting Over After Cancer
Starting over after a life-changing event, like battling a disease such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, can certainly be a difficult task. But it is possible.
Here are simple tips for how to do it:
- Examine your thoughts. Take time to reflect on the tragedy or difficulty you are facing. Dr. Scott Irwin tells SurvivorNet that, often, people with cancer and chronic disease are “grieving the change in their life, the future they had imagined is now different.”
- Seek help. Irwin, who directs Supportive Care Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, adds that talk therapy can help people significantly: “It’s about meeting the individual patient where they are and their feelings, how they’ve always dealt with their body image, what the body image changes mean now in their lives and their relationships, and how they can move forward given the new reality.
- Realize that you are not the first. Study the lives of other people who have faced similar difficulties. Psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman previously told SurvivorNet, “Having support we know is really critical in the healing process.” There is benefit in “talking to those who’ve, you know, been through this process, who are maybe a couple of steps ahead of you, who can tell you what it’s like to walk in their shoes and the unbelievable wisdom that one can gain from speaking to them,” she said.
- Visualize the future. Imagine what it will look like for you to start over. Many people find it very helpful to create a vision board. Cut out pictures or quotes or mementos that give you a concrete picture of your future. Look to it when you are feeling down or in need of a lift.
Do What You Love During & After Cancer
During cancer treatment, and also after, it can be hard to focus on anything except your treatment or the challenges that follow a cancer battle. However, Jeff Bridges is a wonderful example that it’s important to take a moment and focus on something that makes you genuinely happy.
Experts recommend you try to take some time out of your day a few times a week and really enjoy those special pockets of joy.
“We know from good studies that emotional health is associated with survival, meaning better quality of life is associated with better outcomes,” Dr. Dana Chase, a gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology, previously told SurvivorNet.
“So working on your emotional health, your physical well-being, your social environment [and] your emotional well-being are important and can impact your survival. If that’s related to what activities you do that bring you joy, then you should try to do more of those activities.”
Dr. Dana Chase Encourages Those Facing Cancer to Find Moments of Joy During Treatment
Art Through Cancer
Alongside treatment or after beating cancer some people may turn to various artistic outlets (i.e. singing, dancing, painting, crafting) to help them cope with their cancer journey.
RELATED: How I Made It Through Cancer: Painting & Dreaming
Some people also use art to handle feelings of grief after suffering a cancer-related loss. Whenever and however you turn to art, its healing benefits in terms of mental health are well-documented and substantiated.
In fact, Very Well Mind reports that a 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association says that less than an hour of creative activity can reduce stress and have a positive effect on your mental health. And that’s true regardless of artistic experience or talent, the author notes.
Meanwhile, Marianne Cuozzo, a three-time cancer survivor, can also attest to the power of art. And despite the fact that cancer has essentially been her whole life, Cuozzo has recognized herself as a lot more than a diagnosis by focusing on her life as a mother and an artist.
Three-Time Cancer survivor Marianna Cuozzo On How Art Helps Her Express Herself
Cuozzo was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1994 at the age of 28. In 1997, she had a recurrence, and then she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. She had a double mastectomy and originally got implants with reconstruction.
But after years of infections, she decided to remove her implants and “go flat.” Her artwork reflects a deeply personal exploration of body image and sexuality. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Cuozzo tells us how she found comfort expressing herself through her work.
RELATED: Watch this Inspiring Film About the Impact Art & Music Can Have on the Cancer Journey
“My artwork is very reflective of my cancer journey,” Cuozzo says. “I’m doing the best I can to feel beautiful in this new body.”
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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