Challenging The Stigma Around Skin Conditions
September 28, 2019 4:23 PM   Subscribe

British photographer Sophie Harris-Taylor hopes to break down the stigma [featureshoot.com] around skin issues with Epidermis, her candid new photo series challenging how we view imperfection. Epidermis [sophieharristaylor.com] features close-up portraits of 20 women from across the UK with varying skin conditions. The models pose in ways familiar from beauty shoots and celebrity Instagram snaps, except they wear no clothing or make-up – and there’s not an airbrush in sight. Via [digg.com]
posted by cynical pinnacle (10 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is everything!
posted by supermedusa at 4:25 PM on September 28, 2019


wow, I desperately needed this today. and every day since I was 20, tbh.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:49 PM on September 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


Beautiful- thank you so much for posting this.
posted by hilaryjade at 6:01 PM on September 28, 2019


The concept and execution are fantastic.

and can artists please, please stop with the side-scrolling galleries?
posted by tclark at 6:07 PM on September 28, 2019 [10 favorites]


It says something about how this kind of thing makes you feel that I caught myself towards the end of scrolling through this going, "Yeah, but their *arms* all look fine." Which isn't actually a critique of this, it's just like, this is so singular that it's really striking, and my brain is instantly comparing my body to those and trying to find ways that I'm still aberrant.
posted by Sequence at 7:40 PM on September 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


As someone who has had skin issues all his life up to and including today, and certainly for the rest of my life, I am all for reducing the stigma. But I’m annoyed by the feel-good descriptive text from the artist. My infuriating rashes and itches and hives do not make me unique and beautiful, they are things that need to be treated so I can experience peace over the course of the day. I hope every person in this shoot is able to get treatment for their conditions such that they are at most an aesthetic problem, which seems to be the fullest extent of the way the photographer is considering them.
posted by ejs at 9:54 PM on September 28, 2019 [18 favorites]


There are so, so many younger Beautubers who are 100% transparent about their struggles with acne, scarring and cystic issues. Sam Ravndahl is one -- she's bare faced within 35 seconds in front a million subscribers on almost all of her videos, which treat her acne very matter-of-factly. There are loads -- I guess, thinking about it, it's hard to be anything other than transparent about it when a makeup tutorial really requires you start with bare face under seriously bright lights. Obviously it's not the same in photography, so maybe that accounts for why it's relevatory when it's shown?
posted by DarlingBri at 1:49 PM on September 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


Also, that's transparent about having the problem, but entirely in service of a tutorial for how to make the problem completely invisible. Very few cis men are ever going to see those videos on a regular basis, and everybody is getting the message that it's okay and normal to have acne, which is an okay start, but that it is not okay and normal to go out into the world regularly looking like you have acne. That's troublesome if you're a person who, for example, can't wear makeup or for whom makeup is inconsistent with your desired gender presentation.

It's definitely way better than pretending it's a thing that doesn't exist or that typical acne is like one pimple every once in awhile, though, so I do think it's better than how things were. It still feels like something where your value is considered to be less, as a person, for routinely allowing other people to see that you have the problem, especially if you're non-masculine-presenting.
posted by Sequence at 8:27 PM on September 29, 2019


and there’s not an airbrush in sight

Isn't that the point?
posted by pompomtom at 8:58 PM on September 29, 2019


everybody is getting the message that it's okay and normal to have acne, which is an okay start, but that it is not okay and normal to go out into the world regularly looking like you have acne. That's troublesome if you're a person who, for example, can't wear makeup or for whom makeup is inconsistent with your desired gender presentation.

Well I mean, the person I linked to does go out in the world regularly with acne, and talks about it, because makeup tutorials are her job and not her real life. Additionally, the second link I posted was to a tweet from a follower saying "thank you for helping me get over being so hung up with my acne to the point where i can leave the house now without makeup without feeling bad because you have always been quite open about your skin."

I think you might find this interesting reading because there is a literal acne-positive movement and it reaches people of all genders.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:08 AM on September 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


« Older Follow the money . . . and stop it!   |   From Auto Mechanic to Physician... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments