Mokhtar Hassan Chahine is a Saudi photographer who started a local campaign to spread hope, faith and awareness among breast cancer patients and the people surrounding him. “This is a serious issue, you should be aware of it,” said Chahine.
His campaign stared with an idea that he shared with his colleague, Hala Dakhil, for contributing to this cause.
“We started brainstorming and we came up with the idea of producing photos of friends, family and public figures so that people would relate to the cause rather than just shooting models in different poses,” said Chahine. “The concept is to shoot 30 pictures and publish one picture a day during the month of October on my website and my Facebook group.”
Photos for a good cause is the main purpose of this campaign. “When I was living in the UK, I learned that people were very much aware of breast cancer and knew how to avoid it and how to check for it. When I came back to Saudi Arabia, however, I was shocked that a lot of people wouldn’t even say the word ‘cancer,’” said Chahine. “I learned that working on a nonprofit project is much better than doing my job as a photographer. The reason for that is I work with more passion and enjoyment to achieve the right goal.”
Aiming to get in touch with the public and reach people in need through positive images is Chahine’s main goal in this project. “A lot of people become sad and frustrated around the subject of breast cancer and I wanted to redirect this emotion toward a brighter and more positive subject that anyone would not fear to talk about,” he said. “Faith is a effective weapon in the fight against breast cancer and that’s exactly what we are promoting.”
The nonprofit campaign started five days before the month of October. “I started by posting one picture before the campaign as a teaser seeking people’s reaction and I’m glad that everyone is optimistic,” said Chahine. “I sometime receive phone calls from people volunteering to be photographed while others offer their suggestions and thoughts.”
Faces of the campaign are selected through a certain standard for both males and females.
“Saudi men are unaware of breast cancer and don’t know that it’s possible for them to get it. So, we decided to introduce men in this campaign and had a couple of shots of men with a slogan to encourage other men to get themselves checked,” said Chahine.
“We also used Saudi public figures like Omar Azure, an architect and fashion designer,” he added. “We took a picture of him sitting on a chair, as he is a big fan of chairs, to make the picture a little bit personal. We then added a slogan with his handwriting so people would relate to the picture.”
“I was unaware that men are in danger of developing breast cancer,” confessed Azure. “I only thought women were at risk. However, once I knew that men are at risk too, I joined to help spread awareness through this campaign.”
According to Azure, the campaign aims to make men as well as women aware of this disease and to encourage them to get regular checkups. “It is better to be safe than sorry,” he said.
“Of course we also had to ask our friend and makeup artist that I always work with, Inas Hammoud, to join in the project because her work is exceptional and it was very important to me that the pictures look unique,” said Chahine.
A designer, tailor, businesswoman, an architect and other ordinary people are the faces of this campaign. “These are the personalities that interact with others and who people are familiar with and can relate to and their jobs. We avoided using models that pose for a living because we wanted people to relate to those personalities and believe in them,” explained Chahine. “We approached those people and asked them to contribute to this campaign to help people be positive around breast cancer patients and help them get through their pain easily.”
Arab News asked Facebook users about their thoughts on the campaign. Alaa Mohammed, a 22-year-old college student, said that she changed her profile picture with one of Mokhtar Chahine’s Pink Campaign pictures to show her support.
“When I saw the pictures, I immediately used one as my profile picture,” she said. “It’s the least I can do to support such a cause and show my respect to this great photographer.”
According to Saudi photographer, Reem Hambazaza, acceptance is the first step to recovery, and showing this in this creative way is the key to grab people’s attention.
“I find this campaign really creative and one of Mokhtar’s best pieces as he featured people in a very jolly and happy way,” she said. “Breast cancer patients need to see more of this because cancer has always been accompanied with sadness and gloomy faces and it’s time for that to change.”
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