BROCK ELBANK SHOOTS FOLLOW-UP PORTRAIT OF FACE BEHIND THE FRECKLES SERIES TWO YEARS LATER

In March of 2016, at the age of 12, Daisy Trinder applied to British photographer Brock Elbank’s Freckles series hoping to make the cut. Not only was she perfect for the project, but she later became the face for the series. Two years later, Brock and Daisy meet again to create a stunning follow-up portrait of the now 14-year-old Australian girl.

Brock Elbank started the Freckles series in 2012, which received 6,500 applications, and features over 160 subjects covering 35 countries and 6 continents. Daisy Trinder wrote to Brock in March 2016 while he happened to be in Sydney for an exhibition of his Beard series. A young classic beauty with amazing cheekbones, fiery red hair, piercing blue eyes, and a wicked sense of humor, Brock recounts how it was to work with Daisy for the first time two years ago, saying, “The first shot was when she was 12 years old. It was quite an experience for her. She hadn’t done anything like this before. She was a bit shy, blushed quite easily. And her image kind of became this thing. I shouldn’t have a favorite image in the series, but it is my favorite image.”

The two met again for the first time in mid-May 2018 in Kristianstad, Sweden at the opening weekend of the Freckles series’ premiere at the Regional Museum of Kristianstad (Regionmuseet Kristianstad). Reuniting at the exhibition of Freckles, Brock decided to shoot a follow-up portrait with the Hasselblad H6D-100c and recreate the original photograph, which was shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60. “It was interesting trying to replicate the portrait now when she’s almost 15 years old; trying to get her head in almost the same position was quite challenging. She’s more angular in the new picture. A little bit sharper, more mature features, and about 30 cm taller than she was before,” comments Brock. On top of that, photographing the original portrait early March in 2016 at the end of the Australian summer, Daisy’s freckles were much denser versus shooting the new portrait now in mid-May.

Having shot everything on his H4D-60 for Freckles along with his previous series, Beard, and his current series, Vitiligo, the pixel ratio of 8500 pixels in height is perfect for his work. Comparing the two models, Brock explains, “But then you move onto the H6D-100c with 11500 pixels in height and the clarity sort of hurts your eyes, it’s so good. It’s so pin sharp. The file quality really is phenomenal!”