Suzy's Story... the one that inspired the Soozy Project
The morning of my preventative double mastectomy and spacer implantation surgery was quiet in that way hospitals often are; too bright, too sterile, full of tiny sounds that make your heart beat louder in your ears. I remember thinking,
This is the day my body changes forever. I had prepared myself for that truth logically, but emotionally? I was not okay. I hugged my Mom before I left for the hospital. Daemon walked with me, hand in hand, and his Mother came to give healing support.
Then Mateusz showed up.
He wasn’t there as “the photographer from Silk + Salt.” He was there as a steady presence. A witness. A friend. The camera wasn’t a prop; it was an anchor. He didn’t aim it at me like a spotlight. He held it like a candle.
That day wasn’t glamorous. There were no soft fabrics or golden light, only the harsh fluorescents of the recovery wing and the sterile hum of hospital machines. But even in that space, he managed to see something beautiful taking root: a woman in the middle of becoming.
Months have passed since that morning. The healing is still ongoing (body, mind, and spirit) but I can feel a shift. Soon, I’ll step back into the studio, this time beneath warm, forgiving light instead of the fluorescent kind. Pamela will adjust the music. Mateusz will adjust the lens. And I will take a breath and adjust my posture (not from self-consciousness, but from ownership.)
Because this body, the one that has been cut open, stitched, reshaped, and reimagined, is
mine. The same hands that trembled on the hospital bed will rest confidently on silk sheets. The same shoulders that bore the weight of fear will roll back into grace.
The same eyes that saw me at my most fragile will help me see myself as whole again.
Sometimes you need to borrow a lens.
Photography, for me, isn’t just art…it’s medicine. Not the kind that heals wounds, but the kind that helps you see yourself clearly. The kind that reminds you that beauty isn’t something you have to
earn back. It’s something that never left.
Hospitals saved my life... Silk + Salt will help me celebrate it.
Every click of the shutter will be an act of reclamation. Every frame will whisper:
You are here. You are radiant. You are allowed to take up space again.
When that day comes, I won’t just be taking photos.
I’ll be taking my body back.
Not the old one. The true one. The one that survived.
And to every woman who’s still finding her way back to herself:
Sometimes healing begins when you let someone else hold the mirror.
Sometimes, you just need to borrow a lens.
