The Grace Project

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All images: ©charise isis "Grace" is photo-based project by internationally known, award winning Photographer and NYFA fellow, Charise Isis.

Powerful portraits by photographer Charise Isis revealing the courage beauty and grace of women and men who have had Mastectomy Surgery as a result of Breast Cancer. Her project reveals the courage, beauty and 'grace' of women who have had mastectomy surgery as a result of breast cancer. So far over 600 women have been photographed for the project with a goal of photographing 800. (The approximate number of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States on a daily basis). An ongoing project that currently gets exhibited throughout the country, Charise Isis also does speaking engagements addressing breast cancer and body image by revealing some of the powerful stories of transformation that occur as a result of the photographs. The Grace project will also be a published book.

“Grace” is an empowering tool for women with breast cancer, their partners and families. The project brings the general public face to face with the beauty and grace of the women who have faced breast cancer and through the braveness which they display before the camera, increase both awareness for breast health and acceptance of the post-Mastectomy body.

10/20/2026

DAY 20 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:
Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Spirit.
During breast cancer treatment, Spirit had a wound that wouldn’t heal. By the time we made this portrait, the wound had healed, but she was very self-conscious about the scarring on her chest.
But as I photographed her, she was so beautiful, so vibrant, that I began to see the marks and coloration of her scars like a cosmos, a universe unfolding across her chest. When I told her what I was seeing, her whole being brightened. She had never considered her scars that way before, and sharing what I saw seemed to illuminate something for her, opening a gentler way of seeing her own body. Perspective is everything.
Inflammatory breast cancer can have very different indicators than the breast cancer we are taught to watch for. Often, there is no lump. Signs can develop quickly and include:
Swelling or a sudden increase in breast size.
Redness, darkening, or a bruised appearance
Skin that becomes thickened or dimpled, like and orange peel.
Warmth, tenderness or a feeling of heaviness.
A ni**le that newly turns inward.
These changes can also have other causes, including infection, but they need prompt medical attention. Please don’t wait for a lump.
Before Spirit died, we recorded an interview in which she spoke about living with inflammatory breast cancer and the disparities that black women face in breast cancer care. I am so grateful to have her voice, her insight, and this precious time with her preserved.
I’ll share the link in the comments. Please take a little time to listen to Spirit.

10/19/2026

DAY 19 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:
LeptoMets

Tracy came to her portrait session with her daughter and her brand new grandchild. Three generations together. A new life beginning, and a grandmother who should have had years to watch her grandchild grow.

Sadly, she only lived about six months beyond this photograph. Knowing that makes this moment unbearably precious.

Tracy was dealing with a complication of metastatic breast cancer that many people have never heard of: leptomeningeal metastases, sometimes called “leptomets.”

Leptomets happens when breast cancer spreads to the delicate membranes and fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It can disrupt nerve function and cause pressure to build around the brain, affecting things like movement, vision, and thinking.

Symptoms vary, but can include persistent headaches, changes in vision, weakness, or difficulty with balance. For people living with breast cancer, new or worsening symptoms should be given attention to by their medical team.

Leptomets can be difficult to treat, but treatments can help slow its progression and relieve symptoms. More research is urgently needed to give people better options and more time. Research Research Research. Again if you want to support real research CancerCulture is my recommendation.

Behind all of this medical 'stuff' are people and families trying to keep living. Daughters who still need their mothers and grandchildren just getting to know them.

And Tracy, here with her beautiful newborn grandchild... this photograph will one day show this child how deeply they were loved by the grandmother they barely had time to know.

10/18/2026

DAY 18 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:�Know your risk.
This is a portrait of a mother and her two daughters… at a glance you only see one… but then you see the mother holding a book close to her heart. Photographs of the daughter she lost to breast cancer.
Beside this mother stands her living daughter, who chose a prophylactic mastectomy to reduce her own risk of developing breast cancer. A deeply personal decision, made with the understanding of what this disease had already taken from her family.
Breast cancer reaches far beyond the person diagnosed. It enters the lives of parents, children, siblings, and partners and for some families with a history of breast cancer, it comes with another difficult question: What does this mean for me?
Inherited gene changes that increase breast cancer risk can come from either side of the family, including through fathers. Knowing your family history, and discussing it with your healthcare provider, can help you understand whether genetic counseling and testing are appropriate.
Knowing your risk can open up choices. These could include closer screening, medication, or risk-reducing surgery. A prophylactic mastectomy greatly reduces breast cancer risk, but cannot eliminate it entirely. None the less, a person who has tested positive for an inherited gene change that increases breast cancer risk deserves information, support, space to make the decision that feels right for them and respect for that decision.
People sometimes describe preventive surgery as a decision made out of fear. But fear and careful reasoning can exist together. Someone who had chosen a prophylactic mastectomy once explained their decision to me this way: If you were told a plane had an 80% chance of crashing, would you get on it?
That number is not everyone’s risk. But the comparison helped me understand the weight of being told that you face a significantly increased risk of breast cancer.
We cannot change what has already happened to the people we love. But sometimes, what we learn from our family’s story gives us choices about our own.

P.S. The ribbons cover surgical scars because this platform’s automated moderation has removed me before, unable to recognize the difference between a breast cancer portrait and inappropriate content.

10/17/2026

DAY 17 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:�The beginning of Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week.
Brett was 32 when I photographed him. A physically fit young man who had served in the United States military, and a single father with children who need him.
Across his chest you see a fresh mastectomy scar but you also see a gathering of small markings on his torso. Those are guides for radiation treatment which help the radiation therapists position his body consistently so that treatment reaches the intended area while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
When Brett first found a lump in his chest, he showed it to his doctor, but the doctor reassured him that it was probably just scar tissue from his intense workouts, and told him not to worry.
But the lump remained. Thankfully sometime later his girlfriend had a gut feeling that something was wrong with that lump and encouraged him to get a second opinion. After further investigation, a biopsy confirmed breast cancer… Stage IIIB! His cancer was already locally advanced. Further delay could have allowed it to spread to distant parts of his body, becoming metastatic breast cancer, for which there is currently no cure.
Men have breast tissue and men get breast cancer. Being young, physically active, muscular, eating healthy does not count you out. And though it is less common for men to get breast cancer, a delay in diagnosis can give cancer time to advance.
This is why we need men to be included in the breast cancer conversation. They need to recognize the possibility, and their concerns need to be taken seriously by their medical professionals when they seek care.
If you are a man and notice a lump or a change in your chest, have it checked. If it persists, or the explanation doesn’t seem right, follow up and ask whether further testing or a second opinion is needed. Trust your instincts and be your own advocate.
And if you are a person who notices a change in your partner’s chest, encourage them to seek care. Your concern could save their life.

10/16/2026

DAY 16 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:
�National Mammography Day.
Love. The word standing in the background of this portrait feels like a beautiful place to begin.
Making medical appointments, getting check-ups, mammograms, pap smears, paying attention to, and bringing up any change we notice in our bodies, not being afraid to ask again when we don’t feel heard or don’t understand, and possibly even getting a second opinion if we feel we need to… all of it can be an act of self-love.
I have met many people who initially discovered the lump in their breast, or noticed a change in in their general health. And I’ve met others who found out something was wrong as a result of a routine mammogram, before any change was apparent.
Mammograms are an important tool, and although they don’t find every breast cancer, knowing what is normal for your body is important too.
Remember, even if you recently had a mammogram where it appeared that everything was normal and you notice a change soon after, don’t dismiss it… that new change still needs to be examined.
Make time for your health… Talk with your healthcare provider about the screening that is right for you, and remember you have the right to follow up on concerns, and ask for explanations. You are your own best advocate.

10/15/2026

DAY 15 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:�Lobular Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
We are so often told to look for a lump. But what happens when breast cancer doesn’t form one?
Invasive lobular carcinoma begins in the milk-producing lobules of the breast. Its cells often grow in thin strands through the tissue rather than gathering into a distinct lump. This can make it harder to feel, and harder to see on a mammogram.
Sometimes the change is more subtle… an area of thickening or fullness, a change in the shape of the breast, dimpling of the skin, an unusual rash or a ni**le that begins to turn inward. Sometimes there are no noticeable symptoms at all.
Mammograms are important, but a change noticed in the breast change should receive attention even after a normal screening result. Let your Doctor know what you are noticing, and ask whether further evaluation or additional imaging is needed. And remember, you know your own body, it is important to recognize any changes and to be your own advocate.
Today I’m sharing this beautiful portrait of Kristi beautifully at peace in in her post mastectomy body and a reminder to become familiar with your own body. What looks or feels different matters, even when there is no lump.

10/14/2026

Today I’m sad. I learned early this morning that my beautiful friend Jen died as a result of Metastatic Breast Cancer. On metastatic breast cancer awareness day of all days... She certainly knew how to make a statement!
I became friends with Jen when I first photographed her in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2021. We stood with our feet in a river beneath lush green trees, the water and life flowing all around her. She had rainbows in her hair and colorful tattoos, and she lived by the words “Live life in color”, and that she certainly did… her very presence made a statement in every room she walked into.
As I often do when making these portraits, I asked her to think about her loved ones, the people who mattered most to her. The emotion that rose surprised her, she didn’t know that tears would flow as easily as that river did. Jen loved deeply. Her husband and her daughters were at the heart of a rich, colorful, love-filled life. Standing there in the river, she let me see some of that love.
Over the years, we spent time together, talked, laughed, and made more photographs. I came to know her as a dear friend.
The last time I saw Jen was in Nashville at the beginning of this year. We spent a beautiful day together, with me pushing her in her wheelchair, perusing fashions, laughing and chatting up a storm. At the end of the day, we returned to the very same river where I had first photographed her. With my help, and very very slowly she was able to make her way down into the water.
This time, the trees were bare.
I was keenly aware of the stark difference in the landscape. When I first photographed Jen, we had been surrounded by so much life, the trees lush and green above the flowing river. Now their branches were barren, and I could not help seeing in them a reflection of where she was in the cycle of her own life. She had little hair left and had lost much of her mobility. Returning to that same place with her, I felt the passage of time with an aching clarity.
I could feel how precious our time together was.
I asked her to remove her wig. In the photograph, she is pulling it off, her face lifted, a tattoo of a beautiful colorful phoenix spreading its wings in flight across her chest. To me all of it… the phoenix, the removal of the wig…it was a gesture of letting go… of complete freedom.
Afterward, we hugged for a long time. As I held her, I could feel her heart beating through her flat chest, so warm and full of life. But I knew in that moment it was the last time I would get to hug my friend.
I hadn’t heard much from Jen lately, but I knew that she had limited energy. A few days ago she sent me a meme about wanting to stand in a river with someone you love instead of doing all the adult things life asks of you, and she told me she loved me. I knew she was thinking of our time at the river and that this was her final goodbye.
Dear Jen, when I look at this last portrait, I imagine you letting cancer go.
Free.

10/14/2026

DAY 14 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:
Grovia, in her own words.
"A meetup in Tennessee was my first get together with women who had made the same choice I had. It was something that gave me some of the best people I’ve met. Although we’re all very different we’re all the same.
I was first diagnosed in August 2022 with stage 1 Invasive ductal carcinoma with metastasis to the lymph nodes. We chose a lumpectomy and radiation. I went on the aromatase inhibitors and my body started falling apart quickly. I developed cording and lymphedema on the right side of my chest and down my right arm. Okay, cool. Not the best outcome but manageable at home for the most part. I have to visit my OT occasionally for her to really get a deep release of fluid. Something people may not realize is that lymphedema is very painful as well as the cording.
I was taking the aromatase inhibitor anastrazole. Yay! Time for my yearly mammogram July 2023. Well you darling machine you found something on the other side! I went straight to ultrasound and biopsy. Oh yeah you’ll need another lumpectomy and node dissection. My response was a resounding “cut them off”. If they’re gone cancer can’t come back there. My friend who was not metastatic became so at her third diagnosis and it was too late to do anything. Another friend went through hell to get reconstruction. I decided at that time if cancer ever happened to me “off with them”!
In November 2023 I had my breasts amputated, or a double mastectomy. Everything went pretty well. No where near as painful as I had anticipated. My OT had given me exercises to keep my range of motion. Despite that I developed cording and lymphedema in the left arm too.
I dealt with a persistent seroma on my right, previously radiated, side. We drained several times and replaced catheters to get it down andas soon as the drain would come out it would fill back up. Starting in April of 2024 I had three sclerotherapy treatments and I kept a drain in again for several months.
Here’s where the trip comes in. I met Charise Isis and her Grace Project. I have never liked to see myself in pictures. Thats a story for another day. I have a very hard time showing emotion in photos or in life. Again another story. Standing in front of her with that drain I was beginning to hate I asked if we could shoot from the other side to hide it. She suggested making it my super power. And I think she captured my attention to feelings that I was so dearly holding on to my daughter. I had been just over 1 year since she left this physical plain and I would trade places with her and a big it should have been me not you. Charise does all of this for free! So donate anytime you can. It changes lives.
Charise worked her magic and artistically found my hope and pain. I had only been flat for 6 months. During the shoot I was so nervous about showing the mangled look of my chest with a drain hanging out wasn’t exactly the glamour shot I was hoping for. Instead what came out was understanding of who I was now. And even though my chest was malformed it was my chest and I’m alive.
At that moment I decided to live my life differently. I was going to move through the world unapologetically for being myself. I declared to live the rest of my life out loud and proud. More recently in my growth I have chosen a path of peace, self love, happiness, mindfulness, and compassion. These states of being are rooted deep in my soul and have been brought back to the surface.
I am me.
I have value.
I am worthy.
I am happy.
I have an amazing tribe.
I have a beautiful daughter to still make memories with.
I have grandchildren to love and support.
I am flat and I’m proud of my choice.
MEN and women please check yourself regularly. You know your body better than anyone. If it doesn’t feel right get it check out. This disease is not only for girls!"

10/13/2026

DAY 13 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:
Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

This shining soul is still here, but every day she lives with the incredible health challenges and grueling treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

When I look at what my Stage IV friends go through just to stay alive, it seems so unfair. I want them to have some ease in their bodies, to wake up each morning and feel well. To go through life without that black cloud of fear hanging over their heads… to move through an ordinary day, doing all the mundane things the rest of us take for granted.

There is a shared intimacy when we make these portraits together. Often, unexpected feelings rise to the surface that neither of us has words for… In that vulnerability, something deeply authentic and beautiful emerges. I watch the light fall across their skin. There is often a stillness as they move slowly, trusting me with the story their body carries.

This experience can carve a deep human connection… laughter, tears, love and trust.

Over the years, I have lost so many of these friends to this cruel disease. I can revisit their portraits, remember their laughter, or the way they fell sobbing against my shoulder at the end of their photoshoot. I can scroll through our message threads and recall their love, humanity, gratitude and friendship…

I know their faces by heart…

And yet…

I don’t get to hear their voice on the other end of a call… or hug their warm body when I bump into them at this event or that. I don’t get to send silly text messages… or heart emojis or birthday greetings…

And I have friends I am frightened of losing right now.

Metastatic breast cancer research matters so deeply to me. Every scientific advance holds the possibility of giving one of these gorgeous souls more time, less pain… and less fear. Someone I have stood before, gently asking them to turn their bare shoulders toward the light, might get to breathe with us and laugh with us for longer.

An estimated 20–30% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer eventually develop metastatic disease. Currently, there is no cure.

On this day of metastatic breast cancer awareness, please consider contributing to MBC research. I recommend CancerCulture, which directs 100% of donations to metastatic breast cancer research and supports research with curative intent.

10/12/2026

DAY 12 OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH: Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
As a little girl growing up in New Zealand, the fabric of Māori culture was woven into my education. We were introduced to the language and taught the songs. We were welcomed onto a Marae and given an understanding of the relationship of Māori people to the land.
That has stayed with me all my life. I am a Pākehā woman, (white woman) but what I was welcomed into lives deep within my soul like a flame. I am so grateful for it.
Years later, I stood in the fading light of a California desert, photographing this beautiful Navajo woman. She chose to reveal her body after mastectomy and to bring items sacred to her into the portrait. Feathers in her hair, a stone necklace against her chest, an arrow held in her hands.
There she stood, her bare feet firm upon the ancient land, the earth lying open in folds of stone behind her, its long history visible. Bringing her own face, her body, and her heritage into the breast cancer conversation.
I want to hold that beauty alongside something painful.
The American Cancer Society’s 2024 report found that breast cancer death rates for American Indian and Alaska Native women had not improved since 1990, even as the overall breast cancer death rate fell substantially.
These numbers are devastating. Decades of progress, and yet still women left waiting for that progress to reach them. Behind those statistics are people whose absence changes a home forever. A voice someone longs to hear. Hands someone wishes they could hold again.

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251 Broadway
Kingston, NY
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http://www.the-grace-project.org/

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