British Skin Foundation unveils Rankin campaign
Skin charity the British Skin Foundation (BSF) is tonight launching a new campaign, featuring images taken by renowned photographer Rankin.
Launching at London’s National Portrait Gallery, the ‘Scratching the Surface’ campaign shows women covered in insects, barbed wire and broken skin to convey the physical and emotional discomfort that is felt by millions of skin disease sufferers in the UK. The images aim to highlight that it is not how you look, but how you feel, that is important.
Bevis Man, communications manager at the British Skin Foundation, said: “We’re all so used to seeing the more traditional images of beauty in the media, and the idea was to give this a bit of a twist whilst conveying what skin disease can do to someone both physically and emotionally.
“Since the start BETA have been on the ball with what the BSF wanted to achieve, and with the combination of those ideas and Rankin’s shots, hopefully we’ll get there.”
It was the first campaign that BETA had designed for the British Skin Foundation.
Phil Cockerell, creative director at BETA, said: “We needed to balance showing the sufferers’ vulnerability and highlighting their condition without having to resort to forensic details of their illness. Something Rankin has managed to convey beautifully.”
Rankin said: “Skin plays a large role in my line of work, so I'm proud to be able to support the British Skin Foundation with their campaign to raise awareness of skin disease. The shoot was a huge amount of fun to do; the challenge was to give the more typical beauty shoot a bit of a twist and try to have the images convey the emotional and physical impact of living with a skin condition.”