I am a photographer - I have breast cancer. A few weeks ago, the day after I was diagnosed I went to a seminar - to escape, to be with other photographers, to look at and hear about beautiful images. Two presentations blew me away - I will talk only about one - a beautiful woman, Fiona, a photographer and BC survivor presented her images of HOPE - images of herself and others at various stages on this journey. I wasn't ready for this. i saw Fiona's images last year at the Australian awards judging and was touched my how raw and real they were - intensely beauitful but moreso intensely powerful. I cried - others were crying too but I cried because that was going to be me - the woman with the scar and now hair, the woman with the picture on the mantle full of youth, exuberance and ignorance - now replaced my a woman who knows too much, who is full of fight but perhaps also fear, no longer innocent or naive.
I just looked at these images and the first thing I saw in each image was the woman's eyes, her beauty, her soul and then I saw the scars. Work like this is important. It is confronting and not for everyone but I get a bit sick of the Breast Cancer is the "in" disease thing - that's fine if you haven't got it. As the author of the project says - BC is not a pink ribbon. Thank you so much for sharing.
Amanda
