I’ve been photographing boudoir sessions for the last few years, and I really love helping regular women feel sexy and beautiful. As a result of these sessions, I’ve photographed breasts in all shapes and sizes, and met women who have loved theirs and hated theirs, and I’ve seen firsthand how closely a woman’s level of confidence is tied into how she feels about her body.
So when I began doing research for my own mastectomy, I should have been prepared for the range of emotions I felt. Facing the loss of parts of my body I’ve associated (often subconsciously) for so long with my femininity, my sexuality, and my physical attractiveness as a woman was devastating. I wondered how I would feel when I looked in the mirror. I wondered if I would ever feel normal again. I was desperate for reassurance that I could ever feel beautiful, or sexy, again, or if that part of me would be gone forever.
This experience for me has shed light on an area that is lacking for women who are facing mastectomy. Before my surgery, I looked at hundreds of photos of boobs. Almost all of them were of nameless, faceless women that showed the outcome of their surgery, but nothing more. I started to think about putting together a series of powerful, provocative, and artistic images of women post-mastectomy, including women who have chosen not to have reconstruction. I think it’s important that women who are facing having mastectomies, are able to see other women who have already walked that road, who are embracing their new bodies and are confident with their choices. To show that a woman can still be and feel sexy with scars across her chest, or with one breast, or with no breasts at all. That, despite what popular culture may lead us to believe, beauty and breasts are not mutually exclusive. You can have one without the other.
This portrait series is more about the individual woman, her strength, her journey, her beauty, and her embracing (and celebrating) her new figure. I think there is so much power in putting a face to this cause; in helping the observer identify with the women that are shown. In the woman in each portrait kind of saying “F-You Cancer. I am no less beautiful or feminine as a result of your impact on my life. You may take my breasts, but you can’t take my spirit, or my joy, or my sexuality.”
My hope is that these images of real women that have had mastectomies, who are revealing this private and vulnerable side of themselves, are also a bold demonstration of their beauty and strength and bravery and courage. I would imagine many of these women would never have dreamed of posing topless for photos before they had cancer or mastectomies. My hope is, when someone looks at these portraits, they see strong, amazing, empowered women, whose scars are evidence of their courage, of their journey, and of their hope for what lies ahead. Women who are not victims of cancer but celebrants of life. And they see that a woman can still embrace her femininity and sexuality after she’s had a mastectomy.
(And perhaps along the way we could challenge popular conventions about beauty and the female form by making a few ripples in the traditional definitions of what is ‘beautiful’?)
So I travelled to Florida in June, and photographed a number of brave, beautiful, selfless, amazing women who volunteered to put their faces and bodies to this cause. It was a really emotional and incredible experience for me, and I cannot thank these women enough. I also need to thank Sue Friedman, founder of FORCE, for standing behind me and the idea for Beauty and the Breast, and for helping to coordinate the logistics of photographing women during the annual FORCE conference. Also, I need to thank Michele Mann of M3 makeup in Orlando, who very generously donated their time and talents to provide makeup for the ladies. Let me tell you how much of a difference having a professional makeup artist makes during a shoot like this. Not only in the actual outcome of the photos, but also in the overall experience for them women. Michele, Carla and Amy were not only quite talented, but they were super helpful during the shoots and sweet as can be. Having them there made such a difference, and I cannot rave about them enough. If anyone in the Orlando area is in need of a makeup artist, I highly recommend the ladies at M3.
So without further ado, here is the Beauty and the Breast website.
If you know anyone who has been affected by breast cancer, please forward this website along to them. I really hope for Beauty and the Breast to become a resource of hope and encouragement for women who find themselves faced with having a mastectomy.
{I had hoped to announce this a few months ago, but life kind of got in the way (more on that later). Still, with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, this seems like a pretty appropriate time}.
