London photographer celebrates the beauty of freckles with stunning portraits

Brock Elbank’s #Freckles project captures the unique skin feature in all their glory
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Liz Connor18 January 2016

If celebrities like Emma Stone, Julianne Moore and Gisele Bundchen hadn’t convinced you that freckles can look beautiful, this might just do the trick.

A London-based photographer has shot a collection of stunning portraits showing the innate beauty of people who have been naturally blessed with a dusting of freckles over their faces.

Brock Elbank is perhaps best known for his #Project60 Beard series which was exhibited in Somerset House last year, but is now gaining attention for his photoseries #Freckles, which aims to showcase the skin feature in all their glory.

So far, Elbank has captured closeups of 90 beautifully bespeckled individuals, and he hopes to reach 150 before the collection is exhibited at the Michael Reid galleries in Sydney and Berlin in 2017.

Sean Conway (Image: Brock Elbank)
Brock Elbank

He says he was inspired to start the project after shooting a friend’s son who had, what he describes as, “a face full of freckles like I’d never seen before."

Leah Sheehan (Image: Brock Elbank)
Brock Elbank

“When we moved back to the UK, I had to put the series on hold while I shot my #Project60 idea for Beard Season’s melanoma charity”, he told The Evening Standard, “but now I’m in full production of #Freckles and luckily I’m receiving the same feedback as #Project60 through Instagram and other social media, with subjects travelling from all over, including Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Norway amongst others.”

The British photographer says that he finds his diverse models on social media. Discussing his scouting efforts, he says: “When I shoot a new series, I always start off on Instagram. I offer followers to email in their submissions of a recent clear, colour photo and word spreads. The series grows with each portrait until it’s kind of running itself. I love watching the series grow, people from all walks of life jumping on board, tagging me in their photos.”

Elbank says he thinks people see freckles “like Marmite - you either love or hate them”, although feedback towards his portraits has largely been positive: “Ninety-nine per cent are really positive emails from freckled people loving that I’m flying the Freckle Flag I suppose.”

Elliott Brown (Image: Brock Elbank)
Brock Elbank

If you’re a freckled person interested in taking part in the London-based project, simply send a recent colour photo to Brock at studio@mrelbank.com.

Those of us who aren’t naturally blessed with freckles, however, can still enjoy the project – see the latest portraits on Brock’s Instagram.

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