Frank Lebon: One Blood

Using finger prickers, microscopes and slides, Lebon's study of blood examines his own relationship to biology

In 2020, photographer Frank Lebon (born 1993) sought out family and friends to prick their fingers and collect samples of their blood. These intimate sessions to retrieve blood droplets that would be smeared on small glass slides were paired with slightly more traditional portraits, for which Frank would ask his subjects (blood donors) to place their hands over his flash, casting a unique flood of red light upon their own faces. In One Blood, Lebon searches across scales and through layers for photographic evidence of unity and similitude across the people in his family, his life and his home city of London. From his blood, to his blood relatives, to the working bodies that transport blood of donors to those in need, Lebon extends his practice beyond the instrument of the camera to capture an idea of lifeblood.