A Stunning Breast Cancer Photo Shoot

This was not Babe P's first session at my studio, but it was a lot different than her first. Babe P came in for a session last year before a preventative mastectomy surgery to minimize her chances of getting breast cancer. During the surgery, her doctors actually found cancer, and she's been dealing with surgery after surgery - and now chemo - to get healthy again. When she reached out to me about doing another shoot, we knew it was going to be different. She had a few ideas, and we ran with them. I got a new backdrop. She brought in beautiful fabric, and we created portraits that are as powerful as she is.

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Babe P is strong, optimistic, hopeful and really funny about this whole journey. We knew that's what we needed to photograph. She wanted to capture this moment in her journey. She wanted to embrace her scars and her bald head (which she shaved right before her session). This wasn't about feeling sexy or loving what her body looks like. This was about documenting how bad ass her body is while fighting cancer.

We started her session with portraits of Babe P and her mom, who just beat her battle with cancer. She's a two time cancer survivor, and I'm glad Babe P invited her to the shoot so we could capture them together. Babe P made them shirts, and we took a few lovely photos of them embracing each other. Her husband also came to her shoot. She told me how supportive he's been throughout all the surgeries and treatments, and it was very important to her that they had photos together. Their relationship is amazing, and I'm so glad he was able to be in some of her photos. Of course, we photographed Babe P on her own to showcase her as the warrior she is. Her portraits are as powerful as she is. They're bold, but still tender and feminine. While I could never fully capture how incredible Babe P is through photography, these portraits come pretty dang close.

This photo is especially important. Babe P wanted a photograph of her surgery scars, and as Kiera Cass wrote, “The best people all have some kind of scar.”