No Hair Day

By Elsa Dorfman

Book Overview

Riveting, brave, touching, funny, heartwarming, stirring, moving and inspiring, portraits don’t get more intimate than those by famous portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman with her legendary huge... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966866509
• ISBN13: 9780966866506
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Elsa.photo.net
• Length: 56 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

To Life.....and its entire spectrum

NO HAIR DAY is one of the most sensitive messages about the value of living that I've ever encountered. Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman has created a portfolio with running commentary about three extraordinary women (Carol, Libby and Debbie) who have much in common: breast cancer, with concomitant experiences with mastectomy and chemotherapy, sparkling senses of humor, and a comraderie that glows from every page of this book. Elsa Dorfman took on the potentially tough assignment of doing a portrait session with these three models in various states of adornment (or lack thereof) and with her large Polaroid camera was able to capture in a 23" X 36" format all the courage and rare insights that celebrate the durability of the human spirit. Each of the three models (that is so much more appropriate a sobriquet that cancer victims!)is given space among the photographs to relate individual responses to the ordeal of the cancer/chemotherapy/alopecia demon. The relationship among these three delightful women is examined and then matched by the incomparably rich moments on film that Dorfman has managed to capture. This is not a morbid clinical treatise. This book is about the importance of incoporating death into our world-view of life. Death, birth, tragedy, disease, happiness, wigs, love, turbans, scarves, giggling, guffawing, and pizza. It all becomes a cycle of circles in Dorfman's intelligent hands. Technically speaking, as an art book this is a keeper: the quality of Dorfman's Polaroids is marvelous the layout of the book is well designed, and the writing (?recording?) is uplifting without any of the fakery that can often accompany books that attempt to laugh down death. This is a book about Life and all its eccentricites. What a fine achievement it is. For everyone who cares about friends.

Beautiful, fun, powerful, and very touching

elsa dorfman brings the reader into her world by describing the remarkably straightforward and human interactions between her and the amazing women she photographs in this book. death, pain, suffering, and loss are all powerfully addressed--of great value (reflected beautifully through the artist's lens) is how the courage and humanity of these (incredibly alive) women shines through. the connection between the artist dorfman and the subjects was made in heaven. it is impossible to look at these photographs, read the chronology, and remain unmoved. the struggle against cancer finds a respite where a person in pain can recover her lost dignity and remember "glamour" and laugh again, while eating a pizza. the testimonials of the participants are priceless. the term "chemo-chic" will hopefully make it into the glossary of terms for those who are fighting cancer. thank you elsa dorfman!

Intimate portrait of cancer and friendship

Elsa Dorfman, known for her startlingly real portrait work (she did the lovely photo on the front of Philip Greenspun's book, Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing), has created a portrait of cancer patients and their and friendship with all the same clarity and real human warmth of her photography.No Hair Day is of interest to anyone having had cancer, known someone who has, or curious about the process, but it's also of interest to photographers, and to anyone who wants to know the real scoop on putting together such a book - a photo essay, an illustrated memoir. Elsa got a call from a former client whose portrait she'd done years before, and said, "I'm going to give you a gift. I'm going to give you three bald women who are undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. You should take our picture." Elsa, being the down-to-earth woman that she is, said "Cool. Let's do it."The text is from Elsa, as the photographer who shows us the process of working with a 20 x 24 Polaroid camera, of which there are only six in the world. And of working in tandem with the three women, who came to the sessions as friends and cancer victims. They used the book as a sort of healing, and as a revealing portrait that is an intimate look at what happens after hearing those three little words, "You have cancer." But the book is largely in the voice of the women themselves - whole chapters devoted to their finding out they had cancer, how they reacted, what happened after that. It includes stories of the process of biopsies and mastectomies, chemotherapy, choosing wigs, and the public's reaction to their illness. There are also quotes from one of the women's husbands who also filmed the sessions. In one touching quote, he talks of what it was like for he and his wife to watch her go from having beautiful long dark hair to becoming bald.From portraits of the women in hospital dressing gowns holding chemo tubes, to them in formal evening gowns, the book runs the gamut from the fear, pain, and depression of cancer, to the acceptance and hope of survival, and all the good and bad days between. It is really a book of women finding friendship and support within adverse conditions and allows us to see inside a world we otherwise may not be privy to. As one of the women put it, "Getting a life-threatening disease and thinking you're going to die all of a sudden makes you really, really, appreciate life more and how important it really is and how you should really cherish each and every day."