A Photographers Dream to Bring the Battle to Cancer!

Cancer affects us all. I want to capture the dire and strenuous struggles. I want to create a book illustrating the highs and lows of a disease that affects so many. And I want the profits to go to cancer research to FIGHT THIS DISEASE!!

CANCER! The prickling sensation on the back of your scalp, fear, dread, confusion, depression and more felt by a victim and their loved ones. It is hard to escape this corruption of a life. My first experience with this disease was the loss of a very dear grandmother at the age of eight. If I thought that was all I was a FOOL! There are more, so many more. . .

. . . a friend with five young children, one born just days before his diagnosis, lost in six-months. I watched him carved open, leaving long glaring scars to remove an esophageal tumor. I see the anger of a young boy dealing left without his father.

. . . fear in the eyes of both a stepmother and mother who both found lumps in their breasts. One received a diagnosis it was non-malignant the other diagnosis not so happy. A symbol of womanhood mutilated to save a life. Still there but changed.

. . . the fire and zest for life fade when I never thought it would, in the eyes of a dear friend who left to be with her family.

. . . an uncle who fought a ten year battle against odds which predicted much less. He spent many extra years with the love of his life, his wife. Who was that man in the coffin, he looked so old!

. . . a client, tough old cowboy that kicked that disease back where it came from.

. . . another uncle with a zest for life, always a smile on his face, and a love for photography. He helped a confused boy at a crossroads, and set my life on the better path. That boy many years older attended a funeral reignited a passion, a passion to capture life in frames and seconds and inspire the world.

The heroes of this ravaging disease are many but often unknown: the doctors, researchers, nurses. The survivors are lost in the shuffle as life goes on, the losses quickly pushed away as if by ignoring them the wolf at our door will leave us in peace.

MY DREAM – I want to mourn the losses, celebrate the successes, put the heroes on a pedestal, and tell their stories. I want to capture the battlegrounds, the eyes of the warriors, the souls of the survivors look into the depths of those affected, and capture compelling images of their dire and strenuous struggles. I want to create a photobook illustrating the highs and lows of a disease that affects so many people. And, if I sell only a few so be it, but if I sell many all the better, either way all profits will go to the battle, so that I and many can say they did their part to STAMP OUT THIS DISEASE!!

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