When Larysa Chukhmanenko was diagnosed with cancer a little over a year ago, she noticed that her friends and acquaintances seemed to drift away. One close friend, however, stuck by her.
“My friend constantly motivated me,” she told RFE/RL. “She pulled me out of bed and made me walk around when I couldn’t take a step after my initial surgery.”
Even standing was painful, she said.
“That’s when I felt how badly I needed the support of people around me.”
Photographer Tetyana Krukovets conceived of her Fearless Beauty project due in part to stories like Chuckhmanenko’s, and as a way of confronting and coping with such experiences both on a personal and a social level. She envisaged a series of photographic portraits of cancer patients posed together with Ukrainian celebrities including athletes, comedians, actors, directors, and musicians.
