In June, the David J. Sencer Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, opened a new photo exhibit featuring the faces of people living through and beyond a cancer diagnosis. The exhibit: Cancer: Survivors in Focus, tells the stories of cancer survivors while raising awareness of how the public health community can ease the burden of cancer on patients and society through support, surveillance programs, and the investigation of effective cancer therapies.
The exhibition of more than 100 photos, a collaboration of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum and the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, explored the lives of survivors in three themes: Not As I Pictured; Without Borders: The Global Face of Cancer; and Close to Home: CDC’s Stories of Survivorship. Two of the photographers whose work was showcased in the exhibit: John Kaplan, Not as I Pictured, and Carolyn Taylor, Without Borders: The Global Face of Cancer, are cancer survivors.
The show closed in early September but not before it was viewed by more than 25,000 people; because of the positive response, the exhibit may be traveling to other cities in the fall.
“The exhibit exceeded my expectations,” said Louise E. Shaw, Curator of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum. “It has been very meaningful both to us at the CDC and to people outside of the agency. The focus on survivorship gave a different angle to looking at cancer, and the message is so hopeful. I think it is that sense of hope and optimism that has reverberated out of this exhibit.” ■
