Sahir

Real people, a mix of voices

Local Faces, Real Stories features a cross-section of people from across the Liverpool City Region.

You’ll see a range of identities, backgrounds, ages, and styles including people you might expect in a PrEP campaign, and people you might not. That contrast is intentional.

By showing unexpected faces side-by-side, the campaign challenges stereotypes and reinforces a simple message:

PrEP is about protecting your health not about how you look, who you love, or how you identify.

Where you’ll see the campaign

Local Faces, Real Stories will appear across the Liverpool City Region, in both print and digital formats, including:

• Community spaces and nightlife venues
• Clinics, GP surgeries, pharmacies, and testing sites
• Libraries, galleries, and other public spaces
• Social media and online channels
• Pop-ups and outreach materials

Some versions of the campaign will also appear in adult and sex-positive spaces, because sexual health information should be visible where it’s most relevant and because sex-positive messaging helps keep conversations honest, real, and stigma-free.

Bold artwork by Liverpool artist Ben Youdan

At the heart of Local Faces, Real Stories are 15 striking portraits created by Liverpool-based visual artist Ben Youdan.

Ben’s work is bright, confident, and unapologetic capturing the personality and individuality of each person featured. His style blends collage, illustration, photography and print, exploring themes like identity, sexuality, confidence, and culture.

The aim is simple: make sexual health messaging feel human, creative, and relatable not clinical or judgemental.

“I was thrilled to be asked to create these images for Sahir and the oppurtunity to help promote Prep and getting tested was extremely important to me and I am proud to be a part of it. . Conceptually it aligns perfectly with personal and artistic philosophy as  I aim to make images that celebrate individuality, diversity, identity as well as sexuality and it is so important to me to promote  a message of sex positivity and show that we should all enjoy having sex responsibly.. Have a ball but get tested and take your prep.”
Ben Youdan