 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices for the end of life care. And to assist people to talk about their wishes. It's time to transform our culture so we shift from not talking about it to talking to it. It's time to share the way we want to live our lives now and at the end of our lives. It's time to communicate about what kind of care we want and don't want. We believe that the place for this to begin is not in the intensive care unit, but together we can explore the various paths to life sending. Together we can make these difficult conversations easier. Together we can make sure our own wishes and those of our lives are expressed and respected. So if you're ready, navigate the journey. Today we are navigating a journey that most people don't want to talk about. And that is breast cancer. I am a breast cancer survivor. And today we are going to talk to a professional photographer who has made it her life's mission to photograph beautiful things and beautiful people. So she is photographing people who are cancer survivors, among other things. Ashley, welcome, welcome, welcome. It's such a pleasure and we are celebrating breast cancer survival. It's not moaning and groaning about it. No, no, no. So Ashley, tell us, how did you get started? So young and vibrant, how do you get started in something like this? I have always wanted to be a photographer. I just love being behind the camera and capturing a moment in time. And then I knew that my photography could also be used to bring awareness to certain issues. So I started the Breston Fruit Project in 2009, long time ago. Still working on it, but we're getting there. And it was a way to celebrate women, women's empowerment. I kind of wanted to reclaim the phrase of, you know, like, oh, that lady has nice melons or whatever. And I wanted to see if I could do something fun and beautiful with that and make it more empowering for the women involved. So I asked every single woman I knew at the time who would be willing to model for me. All the photos are anonymous, so that made it a little bit easier. But when I first showed those photos out in public the first time, it was at a large festival in California. And three different breast cancer survivors came up to me that day. They were so emotional. They showed me their scars. We cried together. They just expressed to me how powerful the images were and how much it would mean to them. If they were able to do something like that, it would be more than just, you know, reclaiming a turn of phrase for them. It would really be saying, this is my body. I'm still beautiful. I had breast cancer, but I can still show my breast to the world. So after that I started inviting breast cancer survivors to be part of the photo shoot. And to date I've had five models who had breast cancer and I'm still doing a few more. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Can we take a look at some of your models? Oh yeah, absolutely. So we have, oh wow, how beautiful. She was actually my first survivor that I photographed. She was very interesting because we did all the nice photos where it's just her holding the fruit. But at some point she said, you know, when do I get to be angry? Like I want to squeeze the fruit. I want to throw the fruit. You know, none of my other models had ever done that, but she, like I said, she was my first survivor. So we just went with it and there's a few where she just crushed several strawberries in her hand. Yeah, that was really powerful. Wow, can we see, yeah, another one? Oh, cantaloupe. Yeah, so there's our melons. This model actually came to do this photo shoot literally right after she got done with her chemo, which that just... Oh, that wipes you out. That it blew my mind that she was there, that she wanted to do it that day. She said, you know, I'll be fine for the next few hours. It's going to be the next few days that I'm kind of knocked out. So she was a trooper. And it was also really funny. So I made a choice as a photographer to really celebrate like quote-unquote real women as opposed to models. And so before we started, this woman, she was actually trying to pluck. She had one little nipple hair and she was saying, it's so weird. I don't have nipples, but I still have nipple hair. So I left that in. And yeah, we just... The shoots were always really fun and powerful and we'd play music and talk and just got to know each other. And they were so gracious and let me put fruit all over them. How did you get this idea of fruit? It really was that I wanted to reclaim this phrase of kind of objectifying women and using melons to talk about them. Our balloons are a little white. They're not in pink. All our balloons are pink, but they show up as white. I love to tell everybody. The lights suck the color out of our pink balloons. We can bring them closer. Celebration of breast cancer month and... That's okay. People will know. And ghosts. Or we can bring them a little closer. So yeah, but I was in Columbia. I was staying in a hostel and there was a co-ed room and there was some young gentlemen there who didn't know I understood Spanish. So they were talking about their night out before and one of them mentioned that one of the young ladies he had met had very large melones. And I was like, I want to take that back. Melones, melons. And you know, I was fascinated. It was cross-cultural. We have heard that in English a lot. But I was down in Columbia, like I said, and they were saying it in Spanish. And I was like, I want to take that back. Let's see if we can play with that a little bit. We have any more melons? Do we have any more fruit? Yes, there should be several. Yes, we've got all sorts. I had more melons. I titled that one Scooped Out. I thought that one was really powerful, especially since those were her reconstructed breasts. And so there was a while there where she did not have them after she had a double mastectomy. Yeah. And so this was a mother and daughter and the mother's closest to us holding the dark red cherries. And this was a very powerful shoot as well because her daughter was fairly young when she was going through her breast cancer. So we both got to hear the stories. And it was also the first time I'd had two models work together. And it was just so powerful. They were just mother and daughter and they got to talk and the mother got to express her journey through it and her story. And as you can see, the daughter's nipple was reacting to the world, but the mother's nipple was reconstructed. She actually never went back to get it tattooed because she was just so over men. She was just dissecting her and taking her part and fondling her. And so this was really powerful because she got to feel pretty again and do something that felt nice. And so I have one photo of them that is not public because I promised anonymity to all the models, but they're both laughing. They're holding their cherries and they're laughing and they look just like mother and daughter. And so it was a really, really powerful shoot. There's more strawberries. More strawberries, yeah. This was actually also really powerful. She called me a few years later and asked for a few more of the photos because her doctor wanted to actually track the progress. She thought maybe she was developing another lump, so her doctor actually used some of the photos to see if it had grown more. So luckily it had not, so that was good. Well, I'm still concerned about our balloons. It looks like a ghost doesn't it? See, oh look, see the eye in the pink? What if we get them a little closer? Pink, pink up. Do they get? Nah, still not pink. They're a little pink. You can see a little pink. That's good. We are going to take a break and when we come back we will look at some more of your beautiful photographs. We'll be back in one minute. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. When I was growing up, I was among the one in six American kids who struggled with hunger and hungry mornings make tired days. Grumpy days. Kind of days. With the power of breakfast, the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more. When we're not hungry for breakfast, we're hungry for more. More ideas. More dreams. More fun. When kids aren't hungry for breakfast, they can be hungry for more. Go to hungryis.org and lend your time or your voice to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood. Hi everyone, I'm Andrea Gabriele. I'm the host for Young Talent's Making Way here on Think Tech Hawaii. We talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m. about things that matter to tech, matter to science to the people of Hawaii with some extraordinary guests. The students of our schools who are participating in science fair. So Young Talent's Making Way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. only on Think Tech Hawaii. Mahalo. Aloha. And we're back. And we are navigating the journey, and this is a special journey of breast cancer. I'll tell you my story, part of it anyway. When I was diagnosed, male doctors, of course, he looked at me and said, you have the big C. He couldn't even say the word cancer, you know? Yeah. He turned around and walked away. This whole notion, and then when it came time to do the first surgery, they said, I had to have the approval of my husband. And I said, well, suppose I don't have a husband. And then he really didn't know what to say. Like, why is it, and the nurse looked at me and smiled, and she said, now, would they ask you if your husband had to have surgery? Would they ask you? Right. No. No. So we have come a long way in this journey with breast cancer where people can talk about it, we can laugh about it. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. And it's an incredible journey. And it was like it kept coming back, and I kept, we would cut it out because I wasn't doing the chemo. And it would come back. And that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know, oh, shit, here we go again. Do I really need to do this again? Oh, no. No. Anyway, so let's take a look at some more of your pictures. Okay. Let's take a look. Well, our balloons are trying to get pink. They're working on it. Oh, well. They're working on it. Yes. Can we see some, oh, I like that. Yeah. So these, they'll be, so I had three models work with apples because they were all related. This is a mother, and her daughter was there, and as well as her sister. And so the mother or the two sisters are both survivors. There they are together. So this was also very powerful. They've each had numerous surgeries. One chose reconstruction. One did not after her double mastectomy. And man, it was just, that was another really powerful shoot. But they were, they were also just so fun. And I also have another photo of them that is out of the collection because you can see their faces, but they're laughing. Their hair was blowing in the wind. And they just looked like the perfect California sisters. And they're just both so filled with life and joyous. And so then the woman in the center is the daughter. And as you can see, she's pierced her nipples. And she just said, you know, I'm having fun with them while I've got them. So she's, I think I, if I remember correctly, I believe she's planning on doing the preemptive mastectomy. Oh. Yeah. So because it's just so prevalent in her family. In her family, yeah. That's asking a lot. It really is. I know I was, I was surprised by that. There's all three of them together, just a little more. Yeah. That is incredible. That's an interesting color, apple. Yeah. It was, you know, when I was in most of the photos. Those in California? Uh-huh, exactly. So all, all of the fruit is organic. I believe every, all the fruit was grown within about 100 miles of the Bay Area. That was really important to me. It was actually really fun at the farmer's markets the day I'd go get the fruit. Like, I remember picking out the heirloom tomatoes, which we used on another model. And two other people were in the bin digging through the tomatoes. And I said, oh, what are you going to do with your tomatoes? And, you know, the young guy said, oh, I've got my grandma's tomato sauce recipe and I'm making a big batch. And another one was like, oh, I've got people coming over for brunch making a caprese salad. And they were like, what are you doing? And I was like, I'll photo shoot. Minor fun. Yes. So other than breast cancer, are there other, what other photographs do you do? Oh, I do portraits and family photography. I love doing maternity photography, newborns, all that. So I do that. I've done headshots. I've traveled. I've been very fortunate to travel. So I love doing street photography when I'm out traveling around and landscape scenery. You put a camera in my hands and I'm a very, very happy woman. So I take lots and lots of photos. But I love taking photos of people. I love taking photos. I don't have, I'm not a professional. But my phone is telling me, stop. The battery is, the battery. Too many in there. It'll slow it down. It sure will. But I do love taking pictures. I don't know why, but I do. Oh, it's kind of magical. You get to hold a moment of time forever. Do we have other pictures of their phone? I guess there's some of the greater collection. This is my very first model. I was so nervous. There's actually only two or three photos that I could use of her. I was shaking. I was so nervous the first time. But I got better at it. I got more used to it. She was super sweet. One more of our survivors. Yes. I'm impressed. I have not seen as many photographs that I've seen of breast cancer survivors. I've never seen it. Oh, I love that's the tomatoes. Yes, those are the little toy box tomatoes. We've got two different kinds of tomatoes. To date, I've done 24 fruits with 27 models. Very good. Now that we're here in Hawaii, I'm excited to start Tropical Fruit. Tropical Fruit, yes. If you go to Chinatown, you will see fruits that you've never seen anywhere else in the world. Excellent. That's amazing. That's wonderful. I posed for a calendar. Oh, wow. With all of the new calendar. But it has your face, everything. Oh, wow. Very brave. Well, when I walked into the studio, and I was not sure that I could do this, and I saw all these other women, oh, okay. They can do it, I can do it, yeah. But it was that moment of, and the male photographers, and the men are draping, and I had all kinds of depredations. Oh, I bet. And then I just watched other people, and I thought, oh, okay. Okay, I can do this. Yeah. What's the deal? Yeah. And this was the gift from the lady that put it all together. Oh, wow. She gave each one of us a pink, a cooie nut lady. Absolutely. So I wear it as a badge of honor. Yes, absolutely. Now, tell us what else you have. I'd rather watch pictures. Okay. Other photos. These are some peaches with this lovely model. For Simmons. For Simmons, yeah. I do have on my website, which is AshleyEberline.com. I do have a video that goes through the collection fairly quickly and kind of explains some of the facts behind it. But ultimately what I'm hoping is to have not only the photographs, but also gather recipes, fruit-based recipes, and create a book. One book or two. I haven't quite decided yet. I think I might do a book of just the photos and then another book for the recipes so that you can have the coffee table book out and then pull out the recipe book when you need it. So if anyone has fruit-based recipes that you would like to share, please, you can email me. There's my email. Aloha at lovemahalophoto.com. That's our portraits business that we're doing here in Hawaii. Well, I just discovered how to make applesauce. Oh, lovely. Send us your recipe, Marcia. Send us your recipe. I don't know if it was a recipe. It was just sort of... I haven't done it since my children were little, so I've got all these apples and I need to do something with it. There you go. There you go. Yes, there's... Yeah, isn't that neat? I just... I just love the... Yeah, that looks like baby hands. It is a baby hand, so he's the only male thus far in breast and fruit, but that was a little baby and that's his mama. And he was loving the limes. He was holding onto them and there's another one. Maybe it'll come up where he's actually breastfeeding. Yes, that one. Oh, I love that photo. I mean, it's just... I love baby hands with the limes, and so, yeah, that was a really special day. And his grandmother was also a model. So we had three generations that day. So each of the models got to choose their own fruit. I would almost always have, you know, one day where several women would come over to model and I would spread out a nice, beautiful display of fruit and they got to choose. It didn't always work out that way, but that's an interesting with the tattoo. Yeah. And that was really neat too. You can see her tattoo is not finished yet, but it's just kind of like that's a part of life, you know? But it's the way it looks down at the fruit, your eye. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was just really fun to do. All the models were so gracious and, you know, fruit's sticky and sometimes cold dripping all over you, but they were okay with it. So, that was so nice. Colored a little off on those lemons, but hopefully that one looks a little better on my website. And her husband, he's a French pastry chef as in he is French and he's a pastry chef and so he sent me a lovely recipe for, I believe, lemon profiteroles. Oh, something amazing and delicious. Obviously amazing. Oh, she was really neat. She actually had fruit in her tattoos. So that was really fun. And I like that one because I'm in the reflection of her piercing there. Oh, yes. So, yeah, it's just been really, really wonderful. And so, yes, hopefully by next year, by September of 2019, I will have the book published and available for purchase and all of the funds will be going towards breast cancer research. Oh, very good. Oh, this has been really exciting. Thank you so much for having me. This was lovely. Yes, to celebrate. Yes. Even if they didn't show up pink. We know they're pink. We know they're pink. We know they're pink. Yes. But it's a lovely way to celebrate as, you know, that's what we do with navigating the journey. We talk about all of the wishes, all of the issues and this is one of those that here lately it's not deadly. It used to be a sign of the end. And now it's not. Have you ever had a model that you photographed and then later you passed? I did. Cantalopes. The woman who modeled with Cantalopes is no longer with us. She died, I believe, about two years after our shoot. So that was weighs heavy on my heart still. It is beautiful photos to honor her by. Oh, that is so good. That is wonderful. Now, if anybody wants a photograph that's not a cancer survivor. You can, yep, either get in contact with me through my Facebook page. I'm at AshleyEberline.com or my website, AshleyEberline.com and yeah, if they're just telling me what you want. Oh, wonderful. A real pleasure and you will come back and show us some of the other photographs. Absolutely. Aloha and we will see you next time.