Kassandra

Before Kass ever photographed breast cancer scars, she built a business on teddy bears.

Early in her photography career, she offered five-minute sessions in exchange for a new stuffed animal to donate. What started as a way to get people through the door became a tradition she kept for nearly a decade—and a pretty good summary of how Kass moves through the world: make something beautiful, then find a way to give something back.

A tattooed photographer, boy mom, Halloween devotee, and Disney lover, Kass built her studio from a spare room to her garage to a space of her own. She made it through COVID. Now, she is running that same business while still in active breast cancer treatment. By her side is Jon—her husband, best friend, and biggest supporter. They’ve been together 15 years, and cancer has only deepened their connection Kass already knew was rare. “Hands down, I picked the right person.”

Kass found her own lump while traveling in Japan. Months later, she was diagnosed with stage I breast cancer and went on to have a lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy, and ongoing treatment through January. Cancer has made her, as she puts it, “forcefully in tune” with her body. But she has no interest in giving the disease a neat meaning. “I don’t believe cancer happened for a reason for me.”

Instead, she’s interested in what she can create from what came after.

She wants to return to her podcast, where women can hear someone say the strange, messy thing they are experiencing and think, me too. And she wants to photograph people after breast cancer—the scars, changed bodies, flat chests, reconstructions, all of it—and help them see themselves differently. She wants to rock KTC t-shirts and spark honest conversations. 

“I’m in the club. We don’t want to be in it. But I’m here. And I’m here for other people that have to be in the club, too.”