Copenhagen-based photographer Linda Hansen wants people to see birthmarks as something ‘natural,’ and so, she clicked portraits of people with visibly big birthmarks on their bodies.
Linda included these portraits in her book ‘Naevus Flammeus’ along with the stories of her muses.
(A birthmark (or, nevus flammeus) is a congenital, benign irregularity on the skin which is present at birth or appears shortly after birth, usually in the first month. They can occur anywhere on the skin. Birthmarks are caused by the overgrowth of blood vessels, melanocytes, smooth muscle, fat, fibroblasts, or keratinocytes.)
Hansen told Feature Shoot, “Every time people see the book, it’s like – ‘Wow, oh it must be hard to be a person with a port wine stain.’ I compare it to having a tattoo. It’s curious, or a special mark with history. It’s beautiful. How come when you have a mark with nature, this is not OK?”
She also revealed what her subjects get usually have to listen to when people see their birthmarks. This includes – “Did your boyfriend beat you?” “Did you wash the rest of the paint off your face?” “You have your lipstick all over”
Hansen added, “I want to make a confrontation. How long do you have to look? When do you start to see the other details in the photo? The nose, that the clothes are sitting a little wrong. All the small details which are really important. When you have looked enough at the person, the mark doesn’t become interesting anymore.”
“Nobody can say that they’re not affected by how actors and top models look. We all are. I think the project is a reminder, for me, that those standards are not what are important. We have to go against the ideal of what we’re confronted with from all kinds of media. We all have our things that aren’t correct. And we shouldn’t be correct; that’s what makes someone a person. The differences between us. That is what’s interesting.”
Scroll down to see some of the stunning portraits from her project:
