The Tutu Project: How Photographer Bob Carey Donned a Pink Tutu to Fight Breast Cancer

I am built like Bob Carey, a bit on the chunky side, but I do not think I have his nerve. After all, Bob put on a bright pink tutu and created a series of photos of him in all sorts of crazy settings and postures. If that wasn’t enough, now he is using these images to help fight breast cancer.

 
The project started as a lark in 2003, when he and his wife Linda relocated to the East Coast. It was a stressful time and as Bob describes it, he put on the tutu and, “odd as it may sound, the self-portraits proved to be a perfect way of expressing myself.”
 
Six months after their move, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. After treatment she seemed fine but in 2006 the cancer returned. Bob talks about these last nine years and he speaks for me and the thousands of other husbands, who like us have gone through this experience.  
 
"I’ve been in awe of her power, her beauty, and her spirit," he says. "Her cancer has taught us that life is good, dealing with it can be hard, and sometimes the very best thing—no, the only thing—we can do to face another day is to laugh at ourselves, and share a laugh with others."
 
Out of their experience, the Careys created The Tutu Project. It is their way of raising funds for breast cancer organizations, including Cancercare.org and the Beth Israel Department of Integrative Medicine Fund.

They hope the money raised will help make significant differences in the lives of women with breast cancer and in the lives of the people who love them. Their goal is to raise $75,000 through the sale of large prints of Bob’s pink tutu photos and his book, Ballerina, a collection of the images and the stories behind them. It is due to be published in the fall of 2012.
 
Bob Carey’s a photographer who has turned his chunky body and his camera into weapons in the fight against breast cancer. Standing there in his photos, paunch hanging out and wearing a stupid pink tutu, he is a very unlikely romantic figure. Yet, if nothing else The Tutu Project has to be seen for what it really is, a simple tale of a woman and the guy with a camera who deeply loves her.   
 
You can visit The Tutu Project and see more of Bob’s whimsical photos at www.thetutuproject.com and while you are there buy something or just make a donation.