One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. It’s the most common cancer in the UK, with 1 woman told she has breast cancer every 10 minutes. In 2024, there were 2.4 million women diagnosed worldwide, with 694,00 dying from the disease. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month internationally, presenting a global opportunity to raise awareness and call for action to improve access to timely diagnosis and care. This year, the World Health Organisation has selected the theme “every story is unique, every journey matters,” recognising behind the statistics are real lives and deeply personal experiences of uncertainty and fear, but also of strength, recovery, community and hope.
To mark the month, Fotografiska Berlin presents One in Eight, a photography exhibition that brings some of these stories into view. The display was curated from more than 1,000 submissions to a global open call, initiated by the gallery and The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign. The cosmetics company has a long history of campaigning around the issue, with founder Evelyn H. Lauder founding the global movement towards a breast cancer free world in 1992, as well as co-creating the Pink Ribbon, now a worldwide symbol of breast cancer awareness. To date, it’s raised over $123 million for research.
The ten selected artists use documentary photography, portraiture and conceptual imagery to explore moments of diagnosis, treatment and physical change, as well as experiences of care, intimacy, grief, resilience and everyday life. Anna Devis Benet is a Spanish photographer and former architect born in 1990, known for her witty images that create surreal scenes that make viewers look twice. In her images, bodies often merge into shapes, where hats become grapes or the centre of the sun, or skirts become the bow on a present. In Benet’s featured image, a woman stands with her back to the camera, topless, hat merging into the background to take the form of a breast. Daniela Müller-Brunke’s Pink Sock Project has a similar sense of joy and hope. The featured image is part of a larger project, started by school girls in South Africa. It was inspired by a bigger initiative called “Pink trees for Pauline,” a non-profit endeavour where trees are wrapped in pink cloth to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. The artist explains: “the fact that the youth in a remote South African town are made aware of not only breast cancer, but cancer as a whole, that they use their pocket money to raise funds for cancer, is a symbol of hope for the future.”
Some featured images are endeavours in awareness raising. Rosa Mariniello\s portrait of Stefano shows him topless, arms raised above his head with a surgery scar across his chest. The image draws attention to the face that cases of male breast cancer have risen globally, now accounting for approximately 1% of all diagnoses. In Italy, where Stefano is from, there are a total of 600 new cases internationally. Others address the physical, psychological and emotional toll of a diagnosis. Pippa Samaya’s image shows a child pressing his hands to her face: “to be vulnerably in front of my child, and still protect them from the pain of my current reality. How can I tell a toddler what this means? How can I explain this medicine? This shedding? How can I keep letting them in, keep holding them, keep raising them, while I face this cancer?”
Together, the works reveal experiences that are individual yet connected and. Make space for stories that too often remain unseen. More than that, they act as a vital awareness of signs and symptoms, as well as for causes that help fund and progress research. This exhibition could be practically life-saving, encouraging visitors to be more aware of their own health, but it also places the life and humanity of those diagnosed with cancer at its heart. This is a story about people, and it is told with compassion and dignity.
One in Eight is at Fotografiska, Berlin until 31 October: berlin.fotografiska.com
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. © Daniela Müller-Brunke, Pink Sock Project
2. © Nancy Borowick, The Embrace.
3. © Anna Devis Benet, Strong Her.
4. © Jaceck Cisto, What Remains.
5. ©Pippa Samaya, Open.
