Captured scenes from a long journey back to health

By November of 2005, a match had been found. “I’ve been thinking about this project since I lay in bed awaiting my transplant,’’ Traub said recently.

The project to which he refers is “Recovery,’’ a collection of his photos documenting his experience as a blood-marrow transplant patient. The photos are on exhibit at the Danforth Museum of Art in downtown Framingham.

The 12 months that followed his transplant included more hospital time, as well as isolation, recommended because the immune system of a blood-marrow transplant patient becomes so compromised that everyday germs can be deadly.

“In that year, I did some photography in the hospital and some at home. Once I recovered to the point where I could drive, I’d go to various outdoor places to shoot,’’ Traub said. He took about 400 exposures that to his mind were somehow related to his physical condition, whether they were nature images or interior hospital shots.

Traub had long worked as an architectural photographer, but the pictures he took during this period required some adjustment of his usual practices. “I didn’t have the strength I’d had prior to my illness, so I couldn’t carry around the same large cameras I was accustomed to using. Instead, I switched to a 35-millimeter point-and-shoot camera. I chose to shoot in black and white because of its clarity, and because I find it in some ways to be more engaging.’’

Among Traub’s favorite works in the Danforth exhibition is one he took of his dog while the two were out on a walk. “I like the way the image is composed: its hopefulness and its vitality,’’ he said. Another favorite photo that he believes conveys his sense of hopefulness is an image taken from inside his house looking out, with a peculiar play of light on a wooden ledge against a backdrop of woods. “The composition of the photo makes you wonder where the light is coming from,’’ he said.