Stunning Portraits Perfectly Capture the Beauty of People Living With Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a condition that causes people to lose their skin pigmentation. To New York-based French artist Stephanie Corne, people with vitiligo are already works of art just waiting to be emphasized with her paintbrush.

"People who have vitiligo just are gorgeous," Corne said. "For me people who have vitiligo look like they have this landscape of an emotion on them. If I add color, it just emphasizes something that is already there."

Corne's "Vitiligo Project" features people with the skin condition as works of art.

"They feel like they are seen," she said.

First, Corne painted a personal backdrop for each volunteer.

Then, she painted their face based on their personal experience with vitiligo.

For one of the volunteers, vitiligo costed him his identity. "He's African-American and he was turning white," Corne said.

"Being African-American was a big part of who he was because he identified strongly as African-American."

"I had a very shy child coming to me and by the end of the shoot we were buddies."

"She didn't want to show her face so I have a shot with her hands on her face."

"I believe that my role as an artist is to challenge the established notion of beauty."

"We all have feelings no matter what you look like. Outside appearances are not going to change that."

"The reason why people who have vitiligo were touched by my artwork is because I present them as people who have feelings and people who are beautiful."

"I make them feel good."

"And after that, it's up to society to keep them feeling good."

The Vitiligo Project is part of Corne's "Facemotion" art series that attempts to capture people's emotion through paintings on their face.

"It includes portraits of people who have vitiligo, scars or nothing on their face," Corne said. "But we all have eternal scars, we all have lives and ups and downs."