You’re a masterpiece! Powerful image by photographer who wanted to show his friend's strength and beauty as she undergoes chemotherapy



When Washington, DC photographer Jonathan Thorpe first saw model Heather Byrd, he wanted to photograph her, but when he found out she was suffering from leukemia, he knew that no ordinary beauty shoot would tell Byrd's story.



Byrd is suffering a second relapse of the leukemia she battled in 2007 and again in 2011.



Thorpe took the famous Birth of Venus and reinterpreted it with a powerful twist that resulted in a shot he called The Renaissance of Heather.



Reinterpreted: Thorpe's image has Heather Byrd as Venus in a clinical hospital environment

Masterpiece: Botticelli's original Birth of Venus, painted in 1486, now hangs in the Uffizi gallery in Florence

Thorpe first reached out to Byrd to see if she would be willing to do a photoshoot with him to show 'beauty through a troubling time.'



'When I first saw her, I wanted to do a beauty shot with her, but I started thinking more about what I really wanted to convey with such a strong woman as her,' says Thorpe.

The idea to photograph Byrd posed as Botticelli's Birth of Venus came about during a brainstorming session.



'I like to tell a story,' says Thorpe.



'The painting shows Venus being born from the sea, and there are a few different interpretations of it, but one fact is commonly found in each one, that Venus was the epitome of beauty and intelligence.'



Thorpe's incredible image recreates the scene in a modern hospital ward.



Strong: Byrd is fighting leukemia for the third time after relapsing again in November 2013

Beauty through adversity: Thorpe wanted to tell Byrd's story, something no ordinary portrait could do

The thought-provoking image has Byrd, naked and vulnerable in a cold, clinical hospital environment complete with doctors, a nurse and an IV drip.



'Instead of a woman draping Venus in beautiful cloth, a nurse would be covering her with a hospital gown. Instead of the two wrapped in love to her side, two doctors would be there, one with oxygen mask, the other with syringes and a chart,' says Thorpe.



Photographer: Thorpe says he has had an overwhelming response to the photograph he took of Heather Byrd

'And finally, instead of her being presented on a shell where she is born, she would be standing on a pile of her own clothes, and wig.'



The shoot was not without its challenges. Thorpe says he had never been so nervous before a photo session.

In the end, though, it took him just 20 minutes to capture the shot that became The Renaissance of Heather.



The picture was the very last frame he took on the day of the shoot.



'Why was it the last frame? Because as soon as I saw it, I knew THAT was the one,' he says.



Thorpe says that the image is the photo he is most proud of in his professional career.



'For the first time in my professional photo career, I knew what it felt to make a picture that actually moved people,' he says.

'What mattered was showing that in any situation, any at all, beauty can be found not in fancy clothes, or makeup, but in simply the strength in determination of an individual with zero desire of giving up.'

