This photo series examines our relationship to the body and to skin by placing portraits of severe burn survivors alongside elaborately made-up faces in the same set of five images. It challenges the norm that demands perfect beauty and reveals the strength of those whom society usually prefers to hide.

The project’s protocol is founded on participatory practice and complete transparency. All burn survivors were invited to the studio on the same day: they met one another, shared their stories in depth, and—before sitting for their own portraits—reviewed the makeup images to judge whether the effects felt believable or artificial. This approach fostered an atmosphere of trust and enabled participants to co-construct their own image and freely choose how to present themselves.

This series is an ode to a beauty otherwise concealed. It interrogates the stigmatization of the “ugly,” questions dominant aesthetic codes, and highlights the price we pay for conformity. Through a respectful, participatory approach that combines photography and narrative, the project offers an intimate and sensitive encounter: it transforms the viewer’s gaze and honors the resilience of the survivors, revealing an indomitable, subversive beauty at the heart of the skin.