Phillip Toledano’s photos in his series “A New Kind of Beauty” have many traits of a traditional portrait, but his subjects are far from average. Toledano documents people who have gone through radical reconstructive plastic surgery.
“In 50 or 100 years time, I think humanity won’t look like it does today because of technology. … We will be able to redefine what it means to look human and I think these people are the vanguard of that type of evolution,” Toledano said about the project.
The evolution of the series was somewhat serendipitous and evolved through both social media and traditional word of mouth. During an assignment to photograph a man who’d had multiple plastic surgery procedures, Toledano befriended the man’s press assistant. Through that friendship on Facebook, he noticed Allanah, a transgendered woman who had also gone through multiple surgeries. He photographed her, and she in turn let him know about other people for the project. It grew into a larger network of friends of friends.
These are beautiful works of art. The people IRL, not so much.
