Big picture: Reactions, by Angelo Merendino

In April 2011, Angelo Merendino’s wife Jennifer was taken to hospital. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, just five months after she and Angelo were married, and her condition had worsened. → Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis

When she was discharged two weeks later, doctors advised her to take a walk every day, so she wasn’t stuck in the couple’s Manhattan apartment. → Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis

With no hair from chemotherapy, and a walking frame, Jennifer was “not what you would expect from a 39-year-old woman”, Angelo says. “We couldn’t cross the street without people staring.” Struck by people’s reactions – some shocked or pitying, others curious – he started to photograph these passersby when he and Jennifer were on their daily strolls. He shot at hip height so people would react to her, not his camera. “We weren’t mad that people were staring. We just wanted to show this was what life was like for her.” → Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis

Angelo had already been documenting Jennifer’s battle with cancer, keen to show the daily reality of pills, injections, doctor’s appointments and paperwork, as well as the fear, sadness and frustration. → Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis

He had no intention of making the photographs public, beyond friends and family, until he entered a few in a competition. It was then that the emails started coming in – condolences, thanks for what he was doing and experiences shared, all from strangers. “From then on, we felt we had an opportunity to help other sufferers, and to give people who had no experience of cancer a deeper understanding of what it involves.” → Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis

Jennifer died on 22 December 2011. “Life is quite strange these days,” Angelo says. “I am taking things a step at a time.” But he hopes that his photographs will encourage people to look at cancer patients from a new perspective. See more of Angelo Merendino’s images at mywifesfightwithbreastcancer.com Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis