Famed for his portraits of supermodels, A-listers and royals, London-based fashion photographer Rankin has thrown his weight behind a new campaign to prevent devastating acid attacks.
Working not with a ‘super’ or a famous face but with acid attack survivor Patricia Lefranc, Rankin has created a Look Book – a catalogue of photographs produced to promote fashion designers’ latest styles – to highlight the horrendous impact that acid attacks have on survivors’ lives.
In partnership with Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTi), the project culminated in The Tear Couture Look Book, a series of monochrome portraits that wouldn’t look out of place in a high-end designer’s ad campaign.
The Look Book, which has a foreword by the charity’s Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, tells survivor and campaigner Lefranc’s personal story of being attacked with sulphuric acid by her spurned lover Richard Remes in 2009.
Following the attack, Lefranc was in a coma for three months and had to stay in hospital for nine months, slowly learning how to live again.
Patrcia Lefranc, 59, from Belgium, was shot by renowned British fashion photographer Rankin for a campaign launched to highlight the horrific impact of acid attacks on survivors. Pictured holding an image of herself from before the attack, the photo suggests she is still grieving for her former appearance
The Tear Couture Look Book, featuring a series of monochrome images of Lefranc, was equally created to raise awareness about the link between acid attacks and the fashion, textiles, retail and manufacturing industries as they exist in the global south
In one photo, Lefranc is looking straight at the camera, holding up a picture of herself that was taken before the attack.
The powerful shot suggests Lefranc is still grieving for her former appearance and everything that was cruelly stolen from her in the attack.
Lefranc commented: ‘Many people are unaware of the enormous pain and suffering that acid attack survivors go through.
‘I’m so grateful to Rankin for this opportunity to raise awareness of our situation, and to take steps together to prevent further attacks.’
During the incident her nose and eyelids were melted away and she also lost a finger, sight in one eye and hearing in one ear. She also came close to death, as the corrosive substance nearly burned through her heart and lungs, but incredibly her breast implants stopped further deterioration.
Patricia, who previously worked as a janitor first met Remes, while they were living in the same apartment block in Brussels in December 2008.
After a brief conversation in the lift he asked her out for a drink and more dates ensued.
But after several meetings she was devastated to learn that Remes was married with five children and called off the relationship.
She added: ‘I was shocked and said we should just be friends – we hadn’t slept together and I wasn’t about to break up a family.’
Patricia before the acid attack by her former lover Richard Remes in 2009
But Remes was determined for the relationship to continue and the pair soon started meeting twice a week and Patricia’s flat.
At one point his wife found out about the tryst and threw him out but Remes returned to his family while continuing to meet with Patricia in secret.
It was only on a holiday in Egypt in 2009 that Patricia became aware of Remes’s dark streak when he started talking about violent films that involved torturing women and when they returned home she refused to see him again.
It was this event that triggered his increasingly obsessive behaviour and he was even spotted by locals wearing a T-shirt printed with a picture of Patricia’s face and the words ‘I love you’ shortly after.
She alerted the police, but they told her to move house and four-days later she was visited at her flat on suburbs of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean by Remes who was disguised as a parcel courier.
As soon as she answered the buzzer he splashed a container of acid all over her face and upper body.
She said she was convinced she would die, but neighbours in a nearby building heard her screams and managed to get her to the burns unit of a nearby hospital, where she lay in a coma for three months. Her children, Laetitia, Marie, and Joey, kept a vigil at her beside and Remes was arrested thanks to an eye witness.
Remes, then 57, was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury in Brussels in 2012, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
While Lefranc, 59, is based Belgium, Rankin and ASTi hope the Look Book will reach beyond Europe to draw attention to the link between acid attacks and the fashion, textiles, retail and manufacturing industries as they exist in the global south.
Attacked with sulphuric acid by a man with whom she had been in a relationship, Lefranc spent three months in a coma and was in hospital for a nine months
Pictured reviewing the Look Book in which she stars, Lefranc thanked Rankin for his help in telling her story and raising awareness with a view to stopping future acid attacks
Research indicates a correlation between legitimate business uses of acid and the incidence of acid attacks in the global south, specifically in areas where the fashion and textile industries require on large quantities of sulphuric acid.
A report on acid violence by the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice, Cornell Law School and the Virtue Foundation stated: ‘In Bangladesh, for example, the incidence of acid violence is highest in districts where the acid-using garment and jewellery industries are prevalent.’
ASTI estimates that the number of global attacks exceed 10,000 each year. But this is a very conservative estimate as governments in many countries do not maintain official records of acid attacks.
Rankin commented: ‘I have a special affinity with the fashion industry and I’ve been delighted to see the changes that have taken place within the industry in recent years to make it more sustainable and responsible.
‘When ASTi explained to me the issue of acid misuse within supply chains, I knew I had to take action.’
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