Art student Rebecca Dann from Farnborough, Hampshire was presented with an award by Professor Stephen Hawking for her powerful portrait showing her disability.
Dann suffers from Kyphoscollosis, which has left her with a badly twisted spine and makes it difficult for her to walk.
Like anyone else, she wants to find love, and opened up to News.com.au about the difficulties that came with going on dating websites with her condition.
“When I uploaded photos just of my face with no indication of a disability I got lots of matches instantly and guys wanted to speak to me.
“As soon as I disclosed I had a disability they would disappear.”
Her experience with this inspired her to make the project, and to educate others on her condition. Rebecca Dann wrote on her website that she hopes to change the public’s perception of people living with disabilities through the project, aptly titled ‘I’m Fine’.
“‘I’m Fine’ is a project created by myself at University for my independent study. It is a project based around my Scoliosis and my encounters as someone with a Disability. It aims to explore the stigma around disabilities when it comes to dating. The text shows the things that I have had said to me over the years. With this project I hope to open the publics minds to the way they may perceive disabled people. This is a project that I will be continuing over my final year of University.”
‘I’m Fine’ includes sculpture and photography of her back, showing her incredible beauty and her condition in detail.
See the full project on her website.
The project caught the attention of Disability Talk, and won their photography competition, ‘A World Of Unfairness’. Stephen Hawking awarded the prize to Rebecca Dann, and he told her that her portrait was ‘truly inspirational’.
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