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To mark the UK’s first Face Equality Day, London Gallery West is delighted to present an exhibition by fine art photographer Linda Hansen that addresses facial diversity.
Based in Copenhagen, Linda Hansen spent three years creating Naeveus Flammeus, a series of portraits of men, women and children with birthmarks on their face or neck, known as port-wine stains. Hansen’s project aims to get people to see beyond the disfigurement. How long must you look at a person with a facial birthmark before you see the person, and not the mark? When do you start to see the other details in the photograph?
The project explores the value we attach to appearance and challenges the idea of ‘normalcy’. Hansen says “We have to go against the ideal we’re confronted with from all kinds of media. We all have things that aren’t correct… that’s what makes someone a person. The differences between us, that is what’s interesting.” Hansen’s subjects look directly into the camera to reveal what people often fail to see in person: the essence of a human being behind their appearance.
Face Equality Day was created by UK charity Changing Faces to raise awareness of facial diversity and to challenge prejudice. On Friday 26 May there will be different events throughout the day at Harrow Campus, including a workshop with burns survivor and campaigner Catrin Pugh on her experiences of media coverage of her own facial disfigurement (2pm, Library training room), stalls, information and giveaways on facial diversity in the Forum area, and a special evening viewing of the exhibition with the artist in attendance.
Linda Hansen (b.1969, Copenhagen) was educated at the Danish School of Art Photography. She has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions in Denmark and internationally including in Sweden, France, USA, Iceland and Greenland. Awards include The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions artist’s award for the monograph Linda Hansen, and a Danish Art Foundation award. Naebeus Flammeus was supported by the Merchant L.F. Foghts Fund and the Frimodt–Henieke Fund, and is exhibited courtesy of the National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen. www.lindahansen.dk
The exhibition and events are presented as part of the research project Facial Disfigurement in the UK Media: From Print to Online, conducted by Dr Diana Garrisi and Dr Jacob Johanssen (Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster). The aim of the project is to research how facial disfigurements are portrayed in the British press, as well as how individuals with facial disfigurements present themselves on social media. More information about the project can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/mediadisfigurement.
London Gallery West, University of Westminster
