Kevin Bennett

Tony Brinkley walked into the Bangor Daily News photo studio last January, a mild-mannered, softspoken man with a shaved head, carrying with him an unseen and commonly misunderstood burden: He is a survivor of male breast cancer. Brinkley was at the BDN for a photo shoot to illustrate a story about the emasculating disease. After a long and difficult fight with the cancer, Brinkley’s only outward sign of the ordeal is his scar. In creating photos of this man, I knew that scar would tell only part of the story. Exposing Brinkley’s spirit as a survivor, not just a scar, was my goal. I explained this to Brinkley as we spent time getting to know each other, and he was receptive to the idea. Brinkley worked with me easily and patiently throughout the shoot, baring his upper body and a bit of his soul. Holding many different poses, Brinkley seemed a natural. The result ran on Page One in the Feb. 8 edition as a photo left intentionally black-and-white to bring out Brinkley’s dauntlessness.