FM42: Alexandra, please tell us more about The Skin project?
History of creation:
I have a friend, and when she was 5 years old the boiling kettle fell on her, end up with injuring 80% of her body. Since then she began with the struggle for life,
multiple skin transplants and long rehabilitation. I have suffered from atopic dermatitis since birth, and my hands were covered with bloody scab. Like me, Nastya hid her skin for many years
from prying eyes, wearing only wear with long sleeves even when was very warm days in the summer.
The idea of the project is to combine girls with various skin lesions. From dermatitis to burns and scars to show what we hide under clothes for years. I want to combine girls of different types and ages and photograph them in beautiful underwear, not using Photoshop, but with the participation of professional makeup artists and photographers. The project is not commercial, but rather social. Aimed to support women of different ages and to show them that it is not scary, helping them to get rid of the complex they have.
FM42: When do you start, do you have support from your family and friends?
Of course, not all my friends supported me, but I found a lot of new people who believed in me, a lot of Russian celebrities supported my idea, and I also found a great designer who creates underwear for participating girls, and we became very close friends. My boyfriend is from Serbia and when I shared with him my story, he said that I definitely should try to implement my project in the Balkans.
FM42: Tell us about girls reactions on the photo shooting?
When the girls realized that I really want to make high-quality photos (in Russia, top-level photographers, make-up artists and a designer helped me on shooting ), many people wanted to take part. All the girls aren’t professional models, most of them, coming to my to shooting, have never participated in photo sessions before. But for me, the priority is the atmosphere on the set, I speak with everyone a lot,joke, share with them set up that everything will be fine, I want the girls to feel like at home. At the moment, all the girls who took part in the photographing, after the shootings wrote me huge letters of thanking me. I continue to communicate with all of them after and I am very happy to meet them.
FM42: The work you do is incredible. What inspires you to do what you do.
I made this project not just as a page with beautiful photos. I wanted to make a community. Because the majority, looking at numerous ideal photos in social networks and magazines, think “all they are perfect. I’m not like them. I’m alone with my problems.” My project should inspire confidence that she is not alone. There are many of those. We all are not perfect, but we are all beautiful. I receive a lot of letters from different girls with words of gratitude. Some girls write: “I saw photo of your project and decided to buy bikini swimsuit for the first time in my life” or a lot of words of gratitude, a lot of girls write to me that they had never shared their stories with anyone. For me, this messages are the main inspiration. I believe that thanks to our work, at least, a little bit the girls will become confident, and be happier with them self’s.
FM42: What is the next step in your project?
I did 5 shootings in Russia and realized that I needed to move on. My main dream is to make the project international. I want to help girls to see themselves differently and believe in their beauty. Now I’m looking for girls in Serbia who would like to take part in photo shoots, and photographers and makeup artists who would be interested to help me in the implementation of the project. To take part in the project, please write at Direct @projectTheSkin on Instagram or via email projectTheSkin@gmail.com
Photographers : Irina Vorotuntseva , Sergei Misenko
Underwear: Merci Lingerie
Girls : Inna , Alina, Svetlana and Margarita
