JULIA COMITA
Marks of Majesty

Photographer/art director duo Julia Comita & Stephanie Francis collaborated with 7 breast cancer survivors and previvors for their ongoing series Marks of Majesty. Their work with these individuals taught them the importance of amplifying stories from communities outside of the post-menopausal white female.

Visually, Julia & Stephanie imagined formal portraits reminiscent of royal paintings. Backdrop artist Erin Welsh hand-painted five canvases in bold colors. Survivors were adorned in fine fabrics, their scars embellished with gold and silver body paint. This unique fashion and beauty perspective, with a leaning towards maximalism, flies in the face of typical survivor imagery, dignifying the talent rather than victimizing them.

Marks of Majesty is an opportunity to engage the public in a new dialogue around breast cancer, one inclusive of the many impacted individuals who are non-white, pre-menopausal, queer or transgender, who typically go unseen in modern medicine.

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