Love Letter 

Editor:

I want to thank Jennifer Savage for including such a stunning photo by Mairead Dodd and E. Christian Wisner in her latest "Art Beat" column (Oct. 7). The same photograph stopped me in my tracks some time ago when it hung in the hallway of HealthSport. The power of the beauty in both its subject and composition borders on awe.

Immediately, a remarkable photograph that adorned the cover of the New York Times magazine in the early ‘90s came to mind; an image that became world-famous with the caption "You Can't Look Away Anymore." A woman was wearing a one strapped couture dress designed to reveal her recent mastectomy. At first it was difficult to look at the image, but as a woman in my 30s I knew this was happening all over the place -- it could happen to my friends, it could happen to me. This is what many women's bodies looked like. I tacked it up on my bedroom wall.

All these years I've thought it was a model on the cover who'd had a mastectomy that a designer had made the dress for. The photograph is actually a self-portrait by the visual artist Matuschka after her own cancer surgery. It still blows my mind to look at it.

Dodd and Wisner's image is more subtle -- an intimate love photo, almost like a love letter that we've been allowed to share. It's a healing experience. I'm happy more people have gotten to see it.

Stephanie Silvia, Trinidad