About

Look Now Project™ Details

The Look Now Project™️ is a digital humanities project about the personal stories and images of some people affected by breast cancer in Central New York. We aim to break down the barriers between a survivor’s public persona and their private struggles with the disease, and to put a face on breast cancer in our local community.

Historically, breast cancer has been a secretive disease, and this individualistic framing is reinforced by Western medicine’s emphasis on privacy. Breast cancer is all the more traumatizing because of the sexualization of women’s breasts and cleavage by our patriarchal society and media. Not only do we battle the disease, but our self-worth as women is annihilated.

The Look Now Project turns to art as its model for participation, healing and community building, and uses different storytelling forms—multimedia installation, survivor oral histories, documentary theater, new media website—to create a 360 narrative.

Vision

Our personal stories and experiences as breast cancer patients and survivors are a universal resource for information, healing and supporter for anyone dealing with breast cancer—patient, survivor, caregiver, medical practitioner and advocate.

Key Elements

Look Now: Facing Breast Cancer

In 2010, Syracuse University professor Tula Goenka, herself a breast cancer survivor, was the first of three subjects to be photographed for a prototype of the project. As the 2016-19 Newhouse Endowed Chair of Public Communications, Goenka relaunched the Look Now Project with a new collaborative team.

The 2018 Look Now multimedia installation at Point of Contact Gallery focused on the personal stories of survivors from Central New York. Interactive text, graphics, mirrors, and an experimental silent film enhanced the exhibition’s visual core, which presented 44 participants—25 with clothed photographic portraits and images of bare chests, and 19 who chose to remain anonymous except for their bare chest close-ups. Cindy Bell, also a breast cancer survivor, was the project photographer. It was curated by Sara Felice.

The traveling version of the Look Now: Facing Breast Cancer exhibition was on display outside the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3, Syracuse University from November 2019 to April 2021.

TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories

TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories is a documentary theater performance conceived, directed and produced by Tula Goenka, and written by Nancy Keefe Rhodes with Kyle Bass. Presented in November 2019, it dramatized the stories of those touched by breast cancer—patient, survivor, caregiver, medical practitioner, and advocate. It was the second phase of the Look Now Project.

Look Now Project Team

is a breast cancer survivor. She is also a filmmaker, author, social justice activist and professor of Television, Radio & Film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She believes in the power of storytelling to illuminate oppression, heal trauma and create positive change. She is the founder and co-director of the annual Syracuse University Human Rights Film Festival (SUHRFF). Born and raised in India, Goenka remains very involved in the South Asian community.

Tula is the creator, director and producer of the Look Now Project. It is part of her research and creative activity as the Newhouse Endowed Chair of Public Communications for 2016-19.

Cindy Bell

has more than twenty years’ experience as a photographer. In 1992, she established her 5,000-square-feet Focus Studio, Inc., in the heart of Syracuse’s northside Little Italy neighborhood and now divides her photography practice between Central New York and Portland, Maine. Besides portraiture, she produces brochures, catalogs, websites, bill boards, and local and national advertising, and has received many awards. A breast cancer survivor herself, she has authored a photobook, Common Thread, and been active locally in initiatives such as the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Cindy is the portrait photographer for the Look Now Project.

Brittany Wait

is a cinematographer and editor based in Syracuse NY, and formed Just Wait Productions in 2016. She earned her Master’s in Photography from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2014. She aims to tell captivating stories with intriguing characters in a way that's new and unexpected. In 2017, she served as Director of Photography on the Christian feature film 12 Day with God. She assists in the camera department on local features, and also works in documentary, filming in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and also locally.

Brittany is a videographer, editor and associate producer on the Look Now Project.

Iara Rachel

is a musician, visual artist, and world traveler. She os the co-founder, CEO & director at Etc. Pictures, and has produced several films and promotional videos for the New Hartford YMCA and Syracuse Big Brothers Big Sisters. Iara directed No Nuts, an original short film and workshop for youth in the CNY area. Iara graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. in Television, Radio & Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2016.

Iara is a videographer and associate producer on the Look Now Project.

Nancy Keefe Rhodes

is a writer, editor, and curator. She has published more than 400 film reviews, interviews, and profiles of filmmakers, photographers, and artists, as well as gallery exhibition catalog essays. She teaches in film studies in Transmedia/CVPA at Syracuse University, and non-fiction prose at the Downtown Writers Center. She served on Syracuse’s Public Arts Commission (2009-19), and is a member of the national Women Film Critics Circle. She received her masters in Arts Journalism from the Goldring Program, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2006, and an MSW from Syracuse University in 1989.

Nancy is the writer of the Look Now catalog and TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories.

Kyle Bass

is a playwright and author of Possessing Harriet, Tender Rain, Bleecker Street, Separated, and Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo (with Ping Chong). He worked with acclaimed visual artist Carrie Mae Weems on her theatre piece Grace Notes: Reflections for Now (2016 Spoleto Festival USA). He is associate artistic director at Syracuse Stage, Assistant Professor of Theater at Colgate University, and the Susan P. Stroman Visiting Playwright at University of Delaware. Kyle holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting for Goddard College and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Kyle is a writer and co-director for TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories.

Curator & Catalog Designer Sara Felice

Graphic Designer Joanna Giansanti

Hair & Makeup Clare Lopez, Megan Reed

Research Assistants Gina Gayle, Cierra Johnson, Mackenzie Snell

Preparator Rainer Wehner

Social Media Ethan Tyo, Mackenzie Snell, Ezozhon Ismailovoa

Associate Editor Harrison Daniell

Web Designer Adam DJ Brett

Thank you to our sponsors at Syracuse University