French photographer Cyril Caine’s ‘Disfiguration Portraits’ series features striking portraits of patients undergoing facial reconstruction surgery.
The reasons for their surgeries range from accidents to suicide attempts, and Caine captures them in the hospital where they are being treated, with help from their surgeon Professor Bernard Devauchelle.
In an interview with Featureshoot, Caine said his motivation for the project stemmed from his exasperation with seeing the same depictions of conventional beauty in the media, and how disfigured people are stigmatized in society.
“Most of disfigured people stay hidden. They don’t have any kind of social life because of the look and the words of ‘normal’ people... One of my models (who is a friend now) told me that one day when he was in the street, a guy crossed the road in his direction and told him, “How can you stay like this? Look at you! If I were you, I’d put a bullet in my head.”
Through his sister Delphine, a surgery nurse, he learnt of a professor who was looking for a photographer to take study portraits, and discussed the possibility of a series involving patients with the worst cases of disfigurement in the world.
Shot against black backgrounds and blown up into large prints, his images of mutilated visages might make people uncomfortable, but the photographer hopes viewers can understand the subjects are human beings like anyone else, with feelings and emotions.
Ultimately, he hopes his portraits are a source of courage and hope to the patients.
Check out a selection of photographs below and view the rest of the series here.
[via Featureshoot, images via Cyril Caine]