CARING FOR patients
LOOK NOW
Breast cancer survivors share their stories for artistic project
BY SUSAN KEETER
BREAST CANCER led Tula Goenka to reevaluate her life. “I realized I could use my experience, and my body, to say something about breast cancer. All of us can use our experiences to advocate for others,” she explains. Goenka, a professor at Syracuse University, organized a photography and video exhibition showcasing breast cancer survivors this past fall at the Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse. Prints made by photographer and breast cancer survivor Cindy Bell featured 42 women and two men, 25 of whom were shown in clothed portraits accompanied by photos of their bare breasts altered by surgery. e remaining 19 chose anonymity, posing only for photos of their chests. Tula Goenka, center, with her daughter, Ranya Shannon, who was 9 when Goenka was diagnosed with breast
Inspiration for the project came from cancer, standing next to Cindy Bell’s portrait of Goenka at the “Look Now” exhibition. a poster Goenka saw at SU’s Newhouse School in 2009, three years THE LONG VIEW aer she was diagnosed with breast cancer. e poster Lois Schaffer, diagnosed in 1972 advertised a talk by Playboy’s former CEO Christie Hefner, who spoke about transforming the domestic publishing“It was the 1970s, and a paternalistic environment,” based business into a global multimedia and lifestyle explains Lois Schaffer, who had lymph nodes removed company. Goenka wondered whether the magazine known along with her mastectomy. “I was annoyed with male for photos of naked women would ever put on its pages a surgeons who just didn’t get what breast cancer patients woman aer breast cancer surgery. were going through.” Goenka, whose treatment included two lumpectomies, chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, thought it was time for a project championing breast cancer survivors. She met with colleagues and cancer survivors to discuss cultural ideals of beauty, breasts as sources of nourishment and symbols of femininity, and the significance of breasts bearing the battle scars of cancer treatment. e result was a project that included not just the photography exhibit and documentary video, but a website (looknowproject.org) and theater performance, now in process. It’s called “Look Now: Facing Breast Cancer.” Here are stories from five participants.
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CANCER CARE
en Schaffer met Patricia Numann, MD, surgeon and founder of Upstate’s Breast Care Center, which is named in her honor. “Dr. Numann helped me put what I was feeling into words. I adore her.” rough Numann, Schaffer got involved with Reach to Recovery and Cancersurmount, programs in which survivors provide support to others with cancer. Schaffer remained Numann’s patient for many years. Schaffer has nothing but praise for two male physicians she encountered in the 1970s: radiologist Robert continued on page 9
upstate.edu/cancer l winter 2019
