Self Portrait Without Breasts

I am going to see a poet, Clare Best, tonight. She is reading from her book of poems, Excisions, nominated for the Seamus Heaney prize. Clare has breast cancer in her family, and five years ago she underwent a preventative double mastectomy without reconstruction. The photographer Laura Stevens recorded Clare's experience in exquisite detail. I found a short video of Clare's work, Self Portrait Without Breasts, here. It is hard-hitting and beautiful. There is an alternative to reconstruction: letting the mastectomy be. Clare describes her 10 year old son walking in on her looking at herself post-surgery. He tells her: "you're even more beautiful now."