Faces of Osteoporosis and the Stories Behind Them is an eye-opening book, and one where the photographs play well off simple text.

Author Amelia Davis is a photographer by trade. She has previously penned and shot a documentary book about breast cancer survivors, as well as My Story, a journal highlighting caregivers and people with MS, which Amelia Davis has.

Osteoporosis Personified
In this effort, her many large black-and-white portraits of a great variety of people with osteoporosis complement their sparse, down-to-earth first-person stories. Photos show unvarnished images taken from everyday life. Plenty of white space makes each photo, whichstand alone on a page, resemble a museum 

 Wrinkles are not minimized, nor are overlapping teeth touched up. And because of it 11-year-old Andrew has bare feet and 78-year-old Joe is showing a little leg between his sock and his pants, making it real.

Otherwise, you could look at Perry Ann, 40, and retain some disbelief. She’s elegant, beautiful, standing underneath a tree with one hand scratching a retriever’s head, the large ring and heavy metal bracelet weighing it down. Indeed, she begins by noting that she’s climbed some of the highest mountains in North America and Europe. But in spite of all those reps in the gym, in spite of a life of privilege and self-care, Perry Ann has osteoporosis, too.

Osteoporosis Isn’t Choosy
This is the book’s goal: to show that osteoporosis can hit anyone, at any time, in any economic situation, and with any background.

Many of the people between its covers found out they had osteoporosis while getting screened on a whim at a health fair, or to help train technicians, or because they wanted to see how high their score would be.

But Amy, 11, talks matter-of-factly about the bones she has broken that she remembers, and those fractures that occurred when she was so small her parents can only tell her what happened. Others with osteoporosis thought they were fine until a devastating car accident, or until they got another disease and were tested “just in case.”

The mother of 20 children, Maria’s bone test show’s she is in the normal range. But Juan, 80, is not. Breast cancer survivor Nancy is laughing in her photo. She has benefitted from unconditional family support and is newly married.

Who Gets Osteoporosis?
On it goes. Young, old, athletic, arthritic, strong family ties, no family support, no family history, resigned, optimistic, worn down and travel worn. Female and male. With bare-bones dialogue their stories of diagnosis and living with osteoporosis come to light in a unique and memorable way.

Davis has triumphed. This is a book well worth giving to someone in your life who has the disease, as a gift of love to show that they are among many. That they are not alone.

Award-winning author and photographer Amelia Davis has previously created The First Look, winner of a Susan Koppelman Award for editing and an AAUP design award, and My Story. Her photographs have been shown in galleries, at universities and symposiums, and have appeared in American Photo magazine.

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