About My Hair: A Journey to Recovery

by Marcia Reid Marsted, M.P.H. ’88

Capelli d’Angeli Press (Canton, Conn.) 2001

“First I am a photographer. Periodically, I am a cancer patient.” These are the opening lines of Marsted’s book. Following surgery for uterine cancer, chemotherapy was necessary to reduce the possibility of a recurrence. She was told to expect baldness, and as a working artist she decided to record the changes that occurred as a series of photographic self-portraits.

The emphasis in Marsted’s book is on the importance of a positive attitude and a reliance on self-motivation. What had begun as a way of coping became a record of a journey.