Hertoo | Your Breast Cancer Journey thru the lens
Why I’m doing this:
I feel this body of work is so important, not only for those going thru breast cancer for anyone going through traumatic physical change.
Society has continually sold us on the ideal women. What we should look like, how we should act, what we should wear, etc. Who are we then, when that is all stripped away?
Even without a traumatic change to our bodies, that fight is very real for most women.
When your life is on the line and you have to make that decision to alter yourself, to save your life, how does one come to terms with that? Not only that but the fear of death? The grief and the loss. I can’t help but feel it is this huge sense of loss, of what we as a society consider feminine, the breast, that is so difficult to manage once you have survived.
Jill
Through my work with Jill, I have seen her in many stages of all of a traumatic mental and physical change.
Pre-surgery and post-chemo, the very real fear of death. The loss of her sexual femininity. The utter grief.
Post-surgery and radiation. The new body, without the breasts. Confusion, grief, resilience, resolve, and some acceptance.
I say some because this change is so drastic. It takes time.
Will she chose to stay the way she is, no breasts, can she even have implants.
What does it look like moving forward?
Altered, forever. Yet I have never seen such strength, beauty, and fight in all my life. A desire to accept herself, the will to do it, and the support to do it. And Hope. I can’t forget the hope.
started to see through our photoshoots the acceptance, the healing. I got to see her show up, just as she was and is.
So beautiful. And on my end never seeing Jill any differently. She was always Jill, with or without breasts.
I started to see through our photoshoots the acceptance, the healing. I got to see her show up, just as she was and is. So beautiful. And on my end never seeing Jill any differently. She was always Jill, with or without breasts.
This is what the dictionary says about breasts:
“Either of the two soft protruding organs on the upper front of a woman’s body that secrete milk for pregnancy”.
That’s what they are for. Yet our society has put so much on these protruding organs as being feminine. I believe if you are willing to try, just to show up, a photoshoot will help you on your way.
Let me help you claim your big beautiful badass self.
Individual shoot
$550
One hour
20-page, 10x8 millers album No digital files
Conceptual shoot
$1250
1-3 ideas
Two hours
Props not included
5 conversations around ideas
20-page 10x8 album, Millers
16x20 canvas
Three Session Shoot
$2500
2 Regular Shoots
1 Conceptual Shoot
1 40-page album
1 16x20 canvas from each session,
or $400 photo credit towards anything.
5 digital files from each shoot.
Purchase Digital Files
1-5: $100 each
6-10: $75 each
11-15: $50 each
- There will be a 5 or 10% pot taken off the top that will go towards people who want to do this and can’t afford it.
- I’m currently looking into grants.
- I sometimes feel inspired to create a digital collage, if I do I will offer one to you for sale.
- Get a contract together, with permission to show or have in a book.
- Ask for a story about the personal journey.