SCARS

Photography, Commissions

SCARS is a photographic series and film.

A scar is the end point of a physical wound healing. But scars are not just skin deep - emotional and psychological histories lie beneath the healed wounds. Scars can change forever how we see the world, and how the world sees us.

“Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.” 

Leonard Cohen’s quote describes how I would like this photography project and film to make us feel. Scars affect how we are seen and are often imbued with negative connotations — think of ‘Scar’ in The Lion King and Blofed — but instead of seeing a scar, can we see a story? Instead of feeling difference can we feel empathy?

SCARS features five people who tell us about how their scars have made them the people they are today.  War, self harm, conditions at birth, cancer and domestic violence scars signpost us through a collection of stories which are both extraordinary, yet every day.

As one of the people in the film says, her scars tell a story of pain, but they were also the making of her. I wanted to pull back from the scars, and photograph these five inspirational people in their homes and where they work, to illustrate how their scars, from the small and seemingly insignificant, to the absolutely epic, have made them the remarkable people they are today.

The photographic series and stories and an essay were published in The Critic.

The photographs and stories will be exhibited by Centre for Appearance Resarch Bristol, details tbc.

The SCARS film is directed by Rebecca Lloyd Evans and Laura Dodsworth and is a Tigerlily Production for The Guardian. SCARS was supported by Centre for Appearance Research at University of West England. SCARS will be screened at The Watershed in Bristol details tbc.

With many thanks to the wonderful contributors: Pete, Christina, Helen, Simon and Cordelia.