Disfigurement and Interview with Cyril

My paintings from Cyril Caine's photography

After watching the documentary on Chernobyl, I looked into some artists and photographers that specifically focus on people with disfigurements, or emphasizing the 'ugly'. Cyril Caine had work I really admired, there is something so honest about these images. However, there was nothing about him online so I decided to facebook him to find out more about the series. I had a short interview with him to get a deeper insight into the photographs, and a little about the people behind them. Without focusing on the gore of the images, I drew and painted them in a way I felt portrayed them as art, as opposed to disfigurement. In the watercolour painting, the disfigurement is barely apparent. This 'lack' of focus is something I wanted to portray, to look beyond the initial features. Using such a bright colour palette also demonstrated that there is possibility of beauty in everything. using this when colour sampling and fabric swatching, 

Interview with Cyril Caine  

What was the inspiration for the series?

I was probably tired of seeing the same pictures all the time and hearing the same speech about ‘beauty.’ I always loved painters like Matthias Grünewald, Albrecht Durer, some illustrators like Basil Gogos, some classics movies with Lon Chaney too … the first time I saw one of these models, I though immediately of the ‘Retable d’Issenheim’ [by Matthias Grünewald]; the face of this person looked unreal, and it was amazing. I took many surgical pictures but it was the first time I was confronted with this vision, and I talked with him [the disfigured person], read about his pathology, and we decided to take a picture series about disfigurement, because nobody else in the world did it before in an artistic way, and not from a medical point of view— they are not medical photographs. “I took them like a fine art project to show to the world the beauty in these faces, to try to change how people see conventional beauty. Today it looks like our society thinks ‘ultra lifting’ faces are pretty, but they all look the same. 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. It’s a shame. 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.’ This is the reality for these people. So the minimum we can do is to look these portraits and find a certain kind of beauty in them.”

Berlinde de Bruyckere is also a huge influence for me.

How did the people feel having their picture taken?

They were pretty proud of it; I always used the term of "model" I never talked about patient. More than a photographer and because I was alone in the room with them I became I kind of confidant, like a priest in a church, they talked about their fears, their hopes, pain... families and about death. More than a photographic document, art project, it's a human experience. They give us a lesson in courage.

What was the reasoning for some of their disfigurements?

There are accidents, diseases, aggression; suicides…Some of them know they are dying.

What was your reaction to the pictures, and what reaction were you hoping for?

It was difficult at the beginning; you have to be prepared before to meet some of these people in real. But after one or two sessions everything is fine, they start to look normal to you; this is why it's important to show them, you don’t have to be scared. They are the victims, not you. I receive a lot of mails or comments, many people don't understand it and they are very very aggressive with me, insults, threats... They prefer watch trash TV and dream to date Paris Hilton. They forget one important thing, what happened to my models could happen to them anytime and maybe they will be happy to live like they use to be not stay hidden like some "monsters" because some stupid people are scared to see them. It’s important to see these images to understand that you can find beauty everywhere, [a reminder] to stop believing the mass media and acting like sheep, to accept differences, and to see humanity behind suffering. These people exist and have feelings. Talk to them. Don’t look away, but smile. It’s a message of hope for them. I’m not a medical photographer — I’m looking to show another kind of beauty: a powerful image. I want you to put these portraits on your wall, look at them and say: ‘this is fine art.'

Taking these images as shapes instead of faces, I highlighted a few obvious shapes in the faces and translated them into mannequin work.