Mastectomy Maiden on a Golden Mountain

Nov 13

Paige’s Magical Mountain Photoshoot at Sunrise

My beautiful friend Paige underwent a single mastectomy in 2016, an experience that would forever change her outlook on her world. But when you ask her about this journey, you’ll rarely hear words of pain, heartache or terror. She instead is grateful for her diagnosis because it saved her from a life that wasn’t ‘her’. (Link to her blog for details) She feels lucky to have been given a cancer diagnosis at 25 years old and inspires the hell out of me.

I met Paige at The Denver Bicycle Cafe with her husband. They’re that couple that will be down to play board games whenever possible. Not only will they own the games you want to play, but they’ll have 3D printed specialty pieces to add that special flare to your experience. They’re that kind of cool.

Paige wanted to do a photoshoot to honor her left breast and the path that was opened to her because of it. I wanted to capture her spirit and gratefulness together with her love for nature, so we planned a sunset hike up North Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado. It was very cold, but Paige fearlessly stood exposed in the mountain top wind. I don’t remember the exact words, but I remember we yelled a lot of things like, “I’m a badass bitch!” and “BOOBS!” to stay hyped up in the cold. We also listened to 90’s hip hop and of course, LIZZO. Check out those velvet shoes Paige wore on her wedding day.

We did this photoshoot right before Paige went to Chicago to have her left breast tattooed by David Allen of AllenTattoo. David has created a business with a unique tattooing niche creating art and transforming mastectomy scars. Paige knew her breasts would never look like they do in the photos ever again, so we made sure to document this stage.