The Outside of the Inside: An Interview with Martina Holmberg

Swedish photographer Martina Holmberg has won first prize in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2025 for her portrait Mel. Based in Stockholm, Holmberg is an internationally exhibited photographer and writer whose work focuses on people’s lived experiences. Mel is part of her ongoing project The Outside of the Inside, which documents people with facial and physical differences, celebrates diversity, and challenges discrimination. The portrait shows Mel, a burn survivor, in a moment of reflection, gazing out of a window as light falls across her repaired skin. The judges praised the work for its compassion, technical skill, and storytelling. Holmberg is interviewed by photographer Lucy Wilson, herself a burn survivor.

Lucy Wilson (LW): How did it feel to be chosen as the winner of such a prestigious award?

Martina Holmberg (MH): It felt quite unreal. It’s a big competition with many amazing photographers, and they could have chosen any number of images. I’m honoured they chose Mel. We had a great collaboration, and Mel felt very proud of the picture. The most important thing for me is that the sitter feels I’ve captured something inside. Mel was at the award ceremony, and it was wonderful to be there with her.

Phil was born with a birthmark that covers three quarters of his face and parts of his body. He has experienced bullying at school and discrimination in his working life.

LW: How do you approach sessions when photographing individuals with visible differences?

MH: From the start, I was very clear about my mission. This project isn’t about victims or heroes, it’s about ordinary people. Everyone experiences hard times in life, and I wanted to capture that balance of strength and vulnerability.

I also worked closely with the charity Changing Faces. They helped me connect with participants and prepare them for the sessions. I tell people to come as they are. No need for makeup or special clothes. I want them to feel relaxed. Natural light is my preference because it feels authentic. It’s important that the person trusts me; the session is always a collaboration.

LW: What do you hope people feel when they see the portrait of Mel?

MH: I want viewers to feel both strength and vulnerability. Mel is strong, but she’s also experienced difficult times. Even though she has good self-confidence now, people sometimes stare, which reminds her she looks different. I wanted to capture that complexity: her resilience alongside her humanity.

The session itself was relaxed. We were in a hotel room in London with great light, chatting throughout. I believe that if the sitter isn’t comfortable, the photograph won’t work.

At the age of nineteen, Catrin was involved in a severe fire accident that nearly cost her life.

LW: What is the broader aim of The Outside of the Inside?

MH: The project isn’t just about burn survivors. It includes people with many different appearances and life experiences. I want to show the diversity that exists in the world and normalize it. Our beauty standards are extremely narrow, and very few people actually fit them.

The project also encourages reflection on what really matters: being alive and having a body that carries you through life, even as it changes. Some participants have survived serious illness or cancer.

LW: How did the project begin?

MH: I started it about 15 years ago with black-and-white portraits of all kinds of people, including nudes. But I felt something was missing. Over time, the project evolved to focus on the diversity of appearances and their stories. Colour photography felt more natural for this work. It makes the portraits feel more real and accessible.

LW: How did you get into photography?

MH: I initially wanted to be a dancer, then explored ceramics and ethnology. Photography felt natural, perhaps influenced by my father, who was a photographer, and my mother, a journalist. I love telling stories visually, and it became the path I couldn’t leave.

LW: As a burn survivor, seeing your portrait of Mel made me feel proud of my scars and our community. It challenges beauty standards and normalizes difference. Work like this uplifts me and reminds me that our differences are beautiful and deserve to be seen.

I’m also so grateful to you for creating this portrait and sharing people’s stories. There are people like me, burn survivors, who face challenges. Some days, I wake up and don’t feel comfortable in my own skin. But projects like this lift my spirits. They remind me that I should be proud of my scars and not hide them but show them to the world.

Dylan is one of only fifteen people in the world with mandibular dysplasia with hearing loss and progeroid features (MDP syndrome) – a genetic condition that affects jaw development, hearing, and causes traits resembling premature aging.

MH: That means so much. My goal is to normalise diversity and show that different appearances are part of society. True beauty lies in stories, warmth, and lived experience, not conformity.

LW:  I also think there’s something incredibly beautiful about taking something so traumatic and transforming it into something powerful and uplifting. When I look at that portrait, all I see is beauty. I don’t feel pity for Mel at all. I just see a beautiful woman, and you captured that brilliantly. Thank you for that.

And it’s not just about Mel. Being part of the burn survivor community, and the broader community of people with visible differences, I feel that her image reflects on all of us. It reminds us that we are beautiful, and we shouldn’t feel the need to hide.

MH: Exactly. And that really raises the question: what is beauty? For me, it’s the people I’ve met through projects like Changing Faces. They are some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met. Not just in appearance, but in the stories they carry, the warmth they radiate, the life you can see in their eyes. When I see all the portraits together, with everyone’s unique features, it’s truly stunning. Differences make the world interesting. It would be so dull if we all looked the same.