Most of you know I am a breast cancer survivor. I had a mastectomy more than seven years ago, six months of chemotherapy, and no reconstruction. That was a personal choice and I am happy with that decision.
Fast forward a few years. One of my good friends has a friend, Pete Byron, who is an art photographer. He was embarking on a project to celebrate the faces of breast cancer, a very intimate and personal journey for the women who agreed to model for him and share their bodies and experiences. Pete spent the last few years assembling an impressive group of photographs, and has successfully gotten the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ, to host an exhibit of some of these photographs. I understand Atlantic Health Care has underwritten part of the exhibit, and that the images have been printed very large, and will command quite a presence in one of the upstairs galleries at the museum. And I also understand there is a book in the works.
I was one of the models who shared my experience with Pete, and I am looking forward to seeing the end results of this special encounter, Pete is talented and has a sensitivity that made it easy to work with him. I don’t have the exact dates of the exhibit, just that it runs the month of October. Here is the blurb from the Morris Museum’s website,
The Faces of Breast Cancer: Photographs by Pete Byron
Upper Level Gallery
October 2009
This exhibit of intimate photographs incorporates not only powerful images of breast cancer survivors, but also documents their stories as real tributes of courage. The project will be inspiring for survivors of breast cancer all across New Jersey…sending them a message of hope.