Face Value with Brock Elbank

In 2016 Jodi Whitehouse's CMN charity 'Caring Matters Now' contacted Brock after seeing one of his portraits of a subject with Congenital Melanocytic Nevi (CMN) an extremely rare birthmark that only 1/200,000 are born with. Their aim to produce a photographic exhibition featuring 30 subjects from around the world born with CMN to celebrate diversity and educate the general public of which very few knew of. Brock's brief was to document people and present them individually simply in a positive light to raise much needed body-positive awareness. Jodi who was born with the condition talks about growing up in Liverpool literally not knowing what the condition was, the plethora of medical procedures that robbed her of years of her school life, starting the charity and now 25 years on how their strive to find the cause with relentless funding has put CMN and their organisation on the global stage.

‘If you’re the smartest person in the room you’re in the wrong room.’ And when I hosted @tendergramps pre pandemic I was definitely not in the wrong room that’s for sure. I could honestly listen to Cole as their way of informing me on at that time a whole new area was most fascinating. Cole had enquired about Freckles wayback though when Cole applied for Scars their own personal journey and experiences really needed to be documented first and then shared, because Cole’s delivery with their knowledge on Non-Binary matters demands your attention. Even though technically this was recorded as EP10 for Face Value with Brock Elbank it’s now running in the EP8 position and will be available today. These are new works from Cole’s series and revisiting the work somehow presented a new feel to their original posts. I received shortly after they returned to the U.S. a typed letter typed on a good old fashioned typewriter and the simple fact they had taken the time to send this kind of sums Cole up. The technical photographic process is one thing that is generally always familiar and second nature to me, but the individual subjects experiences and their knowledge is always something I learn from.

Thanks again Cole for sharing much of your hurdles overcome and being part of this new venture that is the podcast!

Eva candidly chats with Brock about her discovery of her Vitiligo, the challenges thereafter and facing her demons head on to be where she is confidently at today. Eva's relaxed, fun and honest words will connect with those who live with this skin condition. Brock documented Eva for his Vitiligo portrait series back in 2017 and the results have gone viral on social media associated with Vitiligo.

Darina revisits Brock's home studio to shoot a new series and record a face to face episode. Darina chats to Brock about her experiences with breast cancer in 2019, juggling this with the birth of her second child, overcoming these challenges, to find in January that it had returned. An incredibly humbling listen from a person who has set up a charity to help others and takes each day with a smile to inspire, educate and assist others with stage 4 cancer.

A must listen episode. Brock talks with Elizabeth Soffe's mum Sineád Soffe about the horrific events that unfolded when Elizabeth was only 5.5 months old whilst living overseas. Brock and the Soffe family have become close friends since Brock documented Elizabeth a few years ago. They discuss the horrific house fire that started in the bedroom that Elizabeth was in, the near death experiences, moving to Birmingham to be near the Children's Burns Unit, the 100s of operations, Elizabeth's amazing attitude to life and her incredible charity fundraiser and awards.