Photographer Paula Lerner was diagnosed with breast cancer just after beginning work on Why We Walk: The Inspirational Journey Toward a Cure for Breast Cancer -- a book that captures through photographs the momentum of millions who year after year crowd America's streets and walk to conquer this disease.

A peek into this book is offered in the form of an online slide show, hosted by the Washington Post. Set to inspiring music and lyrics and lasting just three minutes and 59 seconds, this media presentation tells a story about a disease that strikes every three minutes and kills every 14 minutes.

Gripping photographs and sobering facts dominate this powerful piece. There are shots of women in pink wigs and pink tutus, children hosing off physically and emotionally drained walkers, women holding up photographs of lost loved ones -- one with a printed message that reads, Mom, we would walk forever to bring you back. May 14, 2004. There are smiles and cheers and tears. Every image packs an emotional punch.

The facts that appear throughout the slide show really stand out. They spell out in black and white some of the most important facts about breast cancer. And here they are -- all seven of them.

• 40,970 women and 460 men will die from breast cancer annually.

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer in African American women but ranks second to lung cancer in cause of cancer deaths.

• People over the age of 50 account for 77 percent of breast cancer cases.

• Breast cancer is most commonly diagnosed among Hispanic women and is the leading cause of cancer death among this group.

• Being overweight is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer, especially after menopause.

• Risk is increased by onset of menstruation before age 12, menopause after 50, first child after 30, or no children.

• Family history of breast cancer increases risk, especially if close relatives are diagnosed before the age of 50. A first-degree relative -- mother, sister, daughter -- with breast cancer approximately doubles the risk of breast cancer.

Photographer Sharon Seligman's images are inspired by her personal journeys. She photographs people and birds and residential communities. She also captures the journeys of women enduring breast cancer. Her work speaks of the human experience. It speaks of her own experience. It speaks volumes.

Bearing Witness: Beyond the Surface of Breast Cancer is one of Seligman's portfolios. It's a photographic trip down memory lane, depicting self-portraits of courageous breast cancer survivors. Seligman tells her own story in words that border the left side of each portrait. Captions to the right of each black and white photograph offer a glimpse into the life of each woman whose being is displayed in raw form, for all to see, for all to contemplate, for all to appreciate.

And then in another portfolio, Seligman offers more photographs, more visions of the breast cancer experience.

Seligman aims to share the physical changes that come from breast cancer, to project the inner truths. Clearly, she is right on target.

Goddesses Don't Buy Green Bananas is a heart felt compilation of extraordinary photos of some extraordinary women. The Goddesses that are photographed in this book are real women; they are wives, mothers, daughters and friends. Lesley Daley, the author and photographer, published her book after her thirty five year old husband was diagnosed with cancer. Lesley says that those who have faced this life threatening disease have inspired her to do this project.

Last week I did a post about Courtney Nicole and her battle with leukemia. Courtney's mom gives updates on her daughter daily and I'm happy to say that she tells us she is getting stronger everyday. Of course they are not out of the woods yet at day +26 after her bone marrow transplant -- but things are definitely turning around for the better. I mention Courtney because she is featured in the book as The Goddess of Spunk and Cheerleading.

This book is a tribute to all women who's lives have been touched by cancer.

While Anaia Bedford, wife of Emmy award winning photographer Ken Bedford, underwent chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer, both Anaia and Ken conducted research and asked many questions of experts. According to what they learned, early detection, a healthy diet, exercise and a strong immune system are the keys to breast cancer survival and that "breast cancer awareness and education among African American and other minority women in general is vital because there is a lack of medical attention due to financial hardships, spousal rejection fears and being so terrified that the disease will take their lives."

Anaia felt that had she been diagnosed earlier, her chances of survival would have been greater. Anaia lost her struggle to survive breast cancer in 2004.

The Anaia Breast Cancer Awareness Program was founded by her family to increase breast cancer awareness and promote early detection in minority communities. As a tribute to Anaia and to educate women about breast cancer, an annual gala is hosted at the Galleria Marchetti in Chicago. This year's keynote speaker was Dancing with the Stars Vivica A. Fox. Governor Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Richard Daley, Angela Winbush, Phil Perry, Glenn Jones, Howard Hewett and jazz Sax Man Ray Silkman also attended the event.

Anaia believed "Knowledge is power, the more you know and understand will reduce many of the fears and myths you hear about breast cancer." Her family and friends are continuing the cause of raising breast cancer awareness Anais felt was important to surviving cancer. To learn more, visit the Anaia Breast Cancer Awareness Program.

Celebrity fashion photographer and co-founder of Dazed and Confused Magazine Rankin has launched a worldwide exhibit of his photographs conveying the special bond between women with breast cancer and the special family member or friend who comforted and accompanied them through the challenging days and nights from diagnosis to survivorship during the breast cancer journey.

Breast Friends is a photographic endeavor to capture the emotions of thirty international celebrities including Marcia Cross, Jerry Hall, Rosanna Arquette and Ronan Keating who have all been touched by breast cancer. Rankin began this campaign six months after he lost his mother Anne to lung cancer. He realized how important the bond between best friend and someone struggling to survive cancer can be when his mother died only weeks after she lost her husband, Rankin's father, to a heart attack.

Rankin is quoted as saying, "I thought my mother would have lasted another six months as she seemed so strong but the minute my dad died she deteriorated within a week." In July, supermodel Elle MacPherson helped Rankin with the initial launch of the Breast Friends campaign at the Oxo Tower Gallery in London. From there the exhibit will travel worldwide.

Ralph Ginzburg, American author, editor, publisher, photojournalist and outspoken advocate of free speech, has died after battling multiple myeloma. According to the Washington Post, among his supporters were playwright Arthur Miller, journalist I.F. Stone and attorney Melvin Belli.

While Ginzburg earned a degree in accounting, it was journalism that he pursued as a career, working for Esquire magazine, NBC, Reader's Digest, Collier's, LOOK -- and was known for his unorthodox methods of using disguises including that of a clergyman to gain entrance to news events. Ginzburg's first publication was An Unhurried View of Erotica, which explored the undercurrent of pornography in English literature. He went on to publish Eros, a periodical containing articles and photo-essays on love and sex, and later still The Housewife's Handbook on Selective Promiscuity. Ginzburg, self-described as a brandied fruitcake of a publisher, was convicted in 1963 for violating federal obscenity laws for promotional activities in publishing books and magazines on erotica and art.

In 1962, Ginzburg was granted an exclusive interview with 17-year-old Bobby Fischer, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master published by Harpers. According to all accounts, the interview of the reclusive chess genius is still a popular read today. Ginzburg was 76.

Photographs of beautiful, brave, bald women fill the pages of Jackson Hunsicker's new book, Turning Heads: Portraits of Grace, Inspiration, and Possibilities.  Hunsicker, a cancer survivor whose initial fear after diagnosis was that of losing her own hair, features portraits of women from all over -- bald women whose cancer and chemotherapy took their hair.  Well-known photographers capture their beauty in this photo book that features cancer survivors in their own natural settings -- like two women posing in Venice Beach, one having never before gone out bald in public, a surfer riding a wave in Hawaii, and a bald and proud Melissa Etheridge on stage at the 2005 Grammy's.  Each photograph is accompanied by a short essay as the women in this book showcase their talents, interests, bravery, and courage. Hats off to Hunsicker for a book sure to be inspiring.