PORTLAND – Glossy images of bikini-clad women – lean and lithe – decorate a corner of Stewart Smith’s photography studio.

Carefully framed, each picture bears the autograph of an ultra-fit woman. Sure, they’re sexy. But for Smith, a Rumford native, these images are a badge of respect, too.

The women are the New England Patriots cheerleaders and the photos are from their official 2004-05 calendar.

“It’s the biggest thing I’ve done,” said Smith, who photographed the women for two weeks last summer in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The calendar is for sale on the Internet and at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., where the Patriots play. The job has capped a very good year for Smith.

Though he’s been photographing area models, athletes and scores of brides for more than a decade, he found new respectability in 2004.

And he regained his health.

In early 2003, at the age of 34, Smith was diagnosed with colon cancer. He had been having problems sleeping and suffered severe aches in his side. Doctors found a tumor.

Surgery cost him his right kidney. And for seven months, he underwent the rigor of chemotherapy treatments.

“It was terrible,” Smith said, searching for the words to describe the experience. His surgical scars stretch down and across his belly. The chemical treatments, which fight cancer with poisons, left him weakened in his hospital room.

For the photographer, who fell in love with the craft’s ability to touch people, it was the worst fate.

“For me, photography is about the face people make when they see my pictures,” he said. Their smiles may include a recent bride looking at the photos from her wedding or an athlete such as Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar, whom Smith photographed often when Millar was a member of the Portland Sea Dogs.

While recovering, Smith spent much of his time in Maine Medical Center overlooking Hadlock Field, where he has been the Sea Dogs’ photographer since 1994.

When he finally returned to the park late in the 2003 season, he was so weak he had to carry his camera in a wheeled cart. It was the beginning of his recovery.

“That was huge for me,” Smith said, who now looks anything but sick.

On a mission’

In his Portland studio last week, the soft-spoken photographer kicked back on a couch after a shoot with a local model. He’s in remission.

“I’m clean,” he said. “Everything’s good.”

The new calendar went on sale earlier this winter. It costs $15.95, and Smith’s name is printed prominently on the back, beneath a collage of the 16 semi-clothed women.

He had tried to land the job for years.

“Every spring, I’d write them and say, It’s me again,'” he said. He’d send them samples of his work and suggest they look at his Web site, www.stewartsmithphotography.com.

“Finally, they said, Yes,'” Smith said.

The job has led to some questions, however.

“People always want to know what my wife thinks,” Smith said. His wife, Lynn, trusts him, he replies. She knows he acts professionally.

Meanwhile, his buddies have another question:

“Do you need help?” they ask.

If Smith can convince the Patriots to hire him again, he’d like to auction off the role of photography assistant. The proceeds would go to fighting cancer.

The cheerleaders have given him several autographed copies to be sold to charities, he said. Similarly, several members of the world championship Red Sox have signed his photos to be used in fund-raisers.

If his photos can raise money to help other folks with cancer, Smith feels obliged to help, he said.

“I consider myself lucky,” he said. “Now, I feel like I’m on a mission.”