“We’re constantly evolving, working on ways to raise money and not get lost in the clutter of social media and other nonprofits,” photographer Bob Carey, the man behind the Tutu Project, tells the Phoblographer. I truly miss the days of early social media, where art would reign supreme. That’s when the Tutu Project reigned supreme, and folks could get behind the message instead of forgetting about it due to other content. But this project has been going on since 2003 — and it has helped several women who suffer from breast cancer. Yes, it’s still going. But for a long time, the media stopped talking about it even though breast cancer persists.
All images by Bob Carey and the Tutu Project. Used with permission. For more, please visit their Instagram and website.
Table of Contents
The Creative Mind of Bob Carey
Bob got into photography after a bad accident in 1979 at a skate park. He used to love skateboarding. But after that happened, his father urged him to find a new hobby. On the way home from the hospital, they stopped by a camera store. “My first camera was a Minolta XG-7; I was off to photograph my skater friends once it was in my hands,” Bob recounts. “This was a pivotal moment for me. I started college and knew I was going to be a photographer.” When Bob stepped into the darkroom, he began to see the magic of how prints are made. He still calls it absolute magic.
Eventually, Bob got into commercial photography and started out as an assistant. “After my mom died, I started to make self-portraits as a form of self-therapy,” he tells us. “This was when I realized how beneficial my fine art background was.”
Believe it or not, Bob used to shoot film and started out shooting 35mm, medium format, and large format. Today, Bob uses a Nikon D850 with prime lenses, 17-35mm, 24-120mm, and 70-200mm. “I’ve been testing a number of mirrorless cameras am excited about the new features,” Bob tells us. “But for now, I’m sticking with the DSLR. The controls are in front of me, it’s intuitive, and I guess I’m a little superstitious about the change.” Bob also uses Profoto lights.
He mostly uses the 17-35mm f2.8 lens for the Tutu Project. “The extreme wide-angle lens gives me great perspective and an expanse of the landscape,” he says. “Both are integral elements in this body of work. When making these images, I use pocket wizard radio slave to fire the camera.” He uses Pocket Wizard so that he can make the images himself.
The Tutu Project
The Tutu Project first gained momentum in the early 2010s when social media was a much better place. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and so he used the project as a form of self-therapy and a way to make her laugh. “Based on our experience with cancer and knowing how expensive it can be, we knew we wanted to start a nonprofit and now offer financial and emotional support to women and men diagnosed with breast cancer.” Linda is now at stage IV — which means that it has moved to another organ. Despite this, Bob tells us that she’s doing well and that she works with patients while also dealing with lots of fundraising efforts.
Thank you for asking about Linda! Her cancer is now Stage IV or metastatic, which means it’s moved to another organ. Despite that, she’s doing well. She will be on some type of treatment indefinitely and goes for an IV every three weeks. Her main focus of work is The Tutu Project. She works with patients and is behind a lot of our fundraising efforts.
Miraculously, Linda has survived even after 16 years — which gives folks a lot of hope. “My photographs were initially for her, so a husband posing in a tutu in the way I do tends to attract attention,” Bob says. “We also have a fundraising campaign, Dare2Tutu, which keeps the community engaged. We invite people to take a photo in a tutu, dare others to do the same, and collect donations.” It’s made businesses of all sizes want to work with them.
Bob’s Stories
Bob had a lot of stories to share with us about the project, which is best done in his own words down below.
Several years ago, one of our major sponsors, Jet Linx Aviation, invited us to Omaha for a four-day visit. They wanted to introduce The Tutu Project to their community, increasing our visibility while showcasing the impactful results of their support within the cancer community.
Three cancer centers were on our schedule, where we discussed the significance of our mission with breast surgeons and oncologists. At the last center, we had a very impactful meeting with a breast cancer patient. We had created a grant program for the city and had five $1000 grants to award. Working with the hospital we had an opportunity to meet with and personally hand a check to a courageous young woman battling breast cancer. She had three young children and struggled to pay for basic living expenses. The opportunity to offer support reinforced our dedication to raising money.
While this next one isn’t about financial support it was one of the first times we met with a group of breast cancer patients. When we started the project the New York Giants invited us to take part in their October Breast Cancer Awareness game. During halftime, I stood alongside patients who were being honored for having made it to the other side of breast cancer. Linda and I had the opportunity to speak with the women beforehand, hear their stories, and offer our support. The Giants also gave me access to the field to shoot a self-portrait in my tutu.
To be chosen to speak at TEDx Munich was an honor; we were both invited and, of course, excited. As a bonus, we got to meet up with a couple we had met in Berlin a year before. Alex is a breast cancer survivor; she invited two women she had met through their shared challenges of cancer, and their husbands, to join us at the TEDx talk and to explore the beautiful city of Munich.
We have found that the community we’re building does not stop at the borders of the United States. To be able to share our experience of living with cancer and listen to others tell theirs was especially poignant and formed an immediate bond for all of us. There’s something about cancer that strips away the usual noise of getting to know one another and while each of our stories was different, we all understood how frightening it was to hear that you have cancer. We spent three great days with them as we toured through Munich.
One of the days was spent at Olympic Park, where I took two photos. The group was excited to participate, and I loved being able to share the process of how I set up a tutu image. It is difficult to make a list of my favorite images, and while these two are near the top, it was the experience of spending time with this extraordinary group that made it so special.
Thoughts on AI Imagery
Could an AI create what Bob makes? Well, it’s a tough question to answer. AI boggles him and Bob is trying to understand how he feels about it.
In our belief though, what Bob Carey is making is art. It’s motivated by his emotions and disseminates through social media by appealing to peoples’ feelings. But it gets hampered by algorithms. This work is meant to last a very long time and isn’t all about serving and feeding an algorithm the way content creation does. Instead, Bob is fighting for a cause we don’t talk about enough.
Authenticity Statement
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.