Skin Stories & Skin Portraits

Abstract

What personal stories do people with a chronic skin disease have to tell? This was Tanny Dobbelaar's main question in 2001 when she initiated the project “Heftig Vel’’, which may be translated from Dutch as “Severe Skin”. In this essay Dobbelaar shows a selection of what she and photographer Adrienne Norman tried to communicate at that time through a highly hybrid project that has many sides to it. The selection starts with the preface of the book, which was specially designed to enhance the experiences of the subjects in the eyes the viewer. The preface of the book is followed here by several Skin Portraits & Stories of the participants.

Keywords

• illness narratives
• photography