The Grace Project

The Grace Project is a series of empowering portraits by renowned body image photographer Charise Isis that capture the courage, beauty, and grace of women who bear the visible and invisible scars of breast cancer. Charise's sensitive lens empowers breast cancer survivors to embrace their new body, and challenges current ideals of beauty by featuring survivors across the spectrum of body size, age, and ethnicity. The exhibition features large format portraits on silk, creating a graceful sense of presence that honors the women who have chosen to reveal their scars in front of Charise’s camera.

The inspiration for the grace project began when a client contacted Charise, wishing to have his wife, a double mastectomy breast cancer survivor, photographed in a boudoir setting in Charise’s studio. The client’s desire was for his wife to feel and see the beauty that he saw emanating from within her. The Grace Project was born.

To date, Charise has photographed over 400 survivors. The goal of the project is to photograph 800 women including a few men, the approximate number of new breast cancer diagnosis every day in the United States.

The Grace Project - Charleston will premiere at three Charleston galleries(Cecil Byrne, Revealed, John C. Doyle) on October 25th and will be on exhibition through October 29th. Charise will be in attendance at the opening and will give a special presentation about The Grace Project at each gallery. Private gallery tours with the photographer will be available by appointment. Charise will also photograph breast cancer survivors in Charleston, at no cost to the participant.

The Grace Project - The Today Show

Cecil Byrne Gallery - 60 Broad street, Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 391-1891

will be exhibiting Grace Project Women of Color: Statistics point to evidence that African American women experience a higher mortality rate when it comes to breast cancer than their caucasian counterparts. This exhibit aims to spark a dialogue regarding this discrepancy.

Revealed Gallery - 119 Church St. Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 872-5606

will be exhibiting the Grace Project Metavivor: 30% of all breast cancer diagnosis will go on to be diagnosed with stage iv breast cancer. The average life span at a metatstatic diagnosis is three years. 113 deaths per day are the result of metastatic breast cancer. Very little of the millions of dollars raised in the name of breast cancer are funneled towards research for metastatic breast cancer despite this staggering statistic. This highly emotional exhibit features portraits of women who live every day fighting for their lives with metastatic breast cancer and others who have since died from this horrific disease.

John C. Doyle Gallery - 125 Church street, Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 577-7344

will be exhibiting Grace Project - Athena Division: In 2012 the Department of Defense determine that women in the military had a 20-40 % increased chance of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. This powerful exhibit features portraits of our incredibly brave United States military Veterans affected by breast cancer. True Warriors.

All galleries are within walking distance from each other in downtown Charleston. We hope you will join us for the Thursday night opening where the artist Charise Isis will be speaking about each exhibition at these times in each respective Gallery. This is a free event.

5pm - 6pm Cecil Byrne

6pm - 7pm Revealed Gallery

7pm - 8pm John C. Doyle Gallery

If you would like to support the Grace project to help offset the expenses of the Grace project, including the exhibition and the opportunity for women of Charleston to be photographed for the project, your tax deductible contribution can be made here.

If you are a woman interested in being photographed for the project please contact Charise at isisimages@yahoo.com

Friday Saturday and Sunday there will be walking tours with the artist of all three exhibits scheduled.