Epidermis / by Sophie Harris-Taylor

In Epidermis, twelve women are shown barefaced in unretouched images, some of who had never left the house before without their make-up on. Harris-Taylor says she deliberately shot it in the style of a beauty editorial shoot: “I wanted it to be seen as a beauty shoot first and an exploration of skin second.” With Epidermis, she hopes to make our perception of beauty less homogenised.

Skin positivity is about embracing all skin types and actually saying you don’t have to have a certain type of skin to be beautiful

“I can see that vulnerability but instead of belittling it and interpreting it as a negative thing, I think it comes across as powerful. Usually, we take pictures from our best angles to hide the things we dislike, but these pictures confront those features and make you realise that maybe those things really aren’t that bad after all.” – Charlotte

“It allowed me to feel more comfortable in my body and it was a reminder that I don’t need to have make-up to feel beauty.” – Joice

“I felt exposed. I knew I’d feel like that, but I’m close to a place where I’m accepting that I’ll never have perfect skin, and that’s okay. At the time I wasn’t thinking about where the photos could end up. It just felt very right for me to do it at this point in my life. “ – Alice

Sophie harris-taylor