At the first floor of Montefiore Medical Center’s radiation oncology department, a collection of photos stretch across the hallway featuring everyday people holding flowers. The photos, part of an exhibit, intends to calm the nerves of those whose anxiety kicks up at a center where results can be life-altering.

The photos were taken by Linda Stillman as part of an exhibit dubbed “Say it With Flowers,” presented by the hospital’s Fine Art Program and Collection.

“You may be going to your physician for a procedure [that] you are nervous or fearful,” said Jodi Moise, curator of the program.  “Then you walk through the gallery, even if it’s for a minute and you’re transported somewhere else and hopefully your fear or distress level has been reduce.”

Stillman is a conceptual artista based in Columbia County in New York, and inspired by the work of abstract painters. For her latest project, Stillman utilized an iPhone camera to snap photos on unsuspecting people holding flowers. “It’s about capturing a momento,” Stillman said of her project at a gallery event inside Montefiore’s Moses Campus in Norwood. “It’s just a chance where I am, [my works] are united by my love of nature [and] trying to keep track of fleeting moments.”

Stillman caught many of her subjects around the Bronx including Lehman College, the Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District and other New York City neighborhoods. Stillman captured moments like a husband buying flowers for his wife, flowers given to a son during his graduation and a woman buying flowers for God as a way of saying thank you to a beautiful life.

Many nurses have had to pass through the corridor to send patients to the radiation therapy clinic, quickly noticing the change in their faces after passing through the hall. “The walls were just plain and just bare, now there’s something new and fresh,” said nurse Ruthlyn Merrick.

“It doesn’t feel like you’re at a hospital. It feels like you’re at home, it’s relaxing,” said Paulette Edwards, another nurse.

Montefiore hopes that Stillman’s gallery can benefit everyone.

“We have physicians, staff, and a lot of medical students, as well as family members and caregivers,” Moises noted. “So it’s really the larger community that benefits from having the artwork in the hospital.”

Editor’s Note: “Say It With Flowers” can be viewed at Montefiore’s Moses Campus, 111 E. 210th St., through Jan. 26.