C Y N T H I A - M C V A Y

For women over 40, the annual mammogram comes at a time that we have finally become comfortable with ourselves and our bodies. That, while hugely personal and intimate, it is also a ritual that we have in common as a female community. (This connection is embodied by the electrical cords). We dread these portraits, not only because of the anxiety and fear of the potential results, but because of the (literal) crush and the humiliation that we accept and endure as our breasts are pressed into the mammogram machine. Our sensual, erotic breasts are studied clinically and rendered as detached forms. And yet, when backlit as these images are, there is something peaceful and other worldly about them, almost cosmic, mystery-imbued—like the women that we are. Ultimately, we accept this torture under these conditions because we are taking care of ourselves. In many ways, as we hit our mid-life stride—and we take our first “baseline” mammogram at 40—we have found some comfort in who we are as physical beings and have moved on to bigger more fundamental issues, like living.