Excerpts from Matuschka's unpublished autobiography, titled "Last Letter To Florence." : BEAUTY OUT OF DAMAGE "Many artists often take their own experience of pain - whether it is emotional or physical - by turning it into a visual crusade and incorporating their "illness" into their work. Artists such as Frida Kahlo come to mind, as she confronted her injury, she seemed to have transcended it in the creative process. Images often point to remedies and help culture often revise its preconceived ideas about disease and body image. I was particularly challenged with the physical concerns of a mastectomy, both on myself, and for my work. What would I do now as a photo-biographer? Could I portray myself now "scarred and wounded" yet still capable of public approval in an image-driven society? Could the pictures still look beautiful, and depict a woman who has pride and dignity without evoking sorrow, self-pity, or sadness? These were questions I would address as the effects of cancer compelled me to sacrifice some of what I had created in my earlier work for what I could do for others facing the same predicament. For the next two years I would try making a public statement about a highly neglected epidemic. First I started by photographing myself in every which way imaginable: I’d become a one-breasted Amazon, a breast-less/ breast-feeding mamma and with one side of my chest flat, and the other buxom, I could glue on a mustache and really play into the androgyny game. Afterward I made posters, attended rallies and tried to get the pictures published. To my surprise, in August 1993, my self-portrait titled "Beauty Out of Damage," hit the cover of the Sunday New York Times Magazine. In a letter to the editor, a woman wrote: "with one blunt image the New York Times made an artistic and political statement about cancer, women, and our culture’s narrow view of what is feminine, physical and beautiful despite being ‘imperfect’ and ‘flawed.’" In one shot I showed the community what it was like to be "minus one," helped launch the breast-cancer movement and became the first topless cover girl in history. And that occurred in the last century. In what seems like a very long time ago". Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.