the 'Grace of our Humanity' (what?!)

Get a load of the project by photographer Charise Isis called Grace. Isis, inspired by Hellenic sculpture, has assembled a collection of photographs of women who have had mastectomies as an 'exploration into the grace of their humanity.'



"It is a project that speaks about the strength and beauty that women who have survived Breast Cancer possess ... In photographing the project, I loosely use Hellenic sculpture as a visual reference for the portraits, taking inspiration from such artifacts as the 'Venus De Milo' and 'Nike of Samathrace'. These dismembered artifacts have survived the trauma of history and are still valued as objects of beauty within our culture."

The grace of our humanity, still valued as objects of beauty, blah, blah, blah ...

Yawn.

People start taking photographs of women with mastectomy scars and suddenly it’s pushing the aesthetic envelope. It begs the audience to empathize and then hold these women in high esteem because they have a disease, have gone through treatment, and survived. It must be noted that women and men with breast cancer are no braver, stronger, or aesthetically pleasing than anyone else who goes through the experience of cancer. Then why the imagery?

Women – particularly their breasts – have been objectified for centuries. Now we witness the objectification of mastectomy scars. Indeed, Isis emphasized that sculptures of antiquity, despite their amputations and scars, survived and are 'valued as objects of beauty within our culture.' Is the corollary, then, to value women as 'objects of beauty' in society? Do mastectomy and further surgery scars become 'objects' of beauty and bravery in breast cancer culture?

This project also perpetuates the iconic mythology of breast cancer – that to conquer breast cancer one must be strong and brave. It is the responsibility of the woman to defeat her disease and become a survivor. If she doesn’t survive? Well, she didn’t try hard enough.

Of course, in Grace they’ve all had cancer. We should not be surprised that women living with metastatic disease are absent from yet another pithy piece on breast cancer survivors. The ugly scars hold no interest if they are on a woman who has metastatic disease. Breast cancer isn’t about death. It is about pink ribbons, endurance, and survivorship.

The images try very hard, but they seem forced and largely uninspired. And although some may find inspiration in its images, my view is that as a body of work it objectifies the surgery, the scars, the physical detritus of breast cancer. The project has been traveling the United States for the past two years 'showcasing the brave subjects who bared their bodies for the camera, in the name of survivor solidarity.'

Bullshit.