After completing my tween project WHO I AM last year, I wanted to do something for teen girls. I stumbled upon Project Beauty and loved the concept. As soon as I had a little free time, I started advertising for the project. The first day of sessions, I photographed 5 girls (3 of my KKP Senior models and two others). On our second day, I photographed 13 girls, for a total of 18 girls. The premise behind the project is no makeup, heatless hair, plain white shirt and denim bottoms. Each session was 20 mins long. During the session, the girls were asked to answer several questions: How do you define beauty? How do you think society defines beauty? Did you have any insecurities coming in for the project? What made you decide to participate?
The unedited photos were combined with the answers to their questions, and turned into a 20×30 display including four prints. Event1013 in Plano was amazing to the project. They not only let us photograph all of the girls there, but we also displayed the project there on 8.8.18. All 18 girls attended the gallery’s opening, and we ended up with about 75 people that came through that evening to see the photos and a slideshow with hundreds more images from the sessions. It was so awesome seeing the girls again since I didn’t know most of them prior to this project. It made it even more special for complete strangers to have faith in being photographed naturally by a complete stranger. The girls and their families were all so sweet! Throughout the night, many of this year’s participants asked to sign up for the project next year. Some also brought friends who want to be included in the project in the future. One participant told me “my friends LOVED it and so want to participate next year.” One of her friends went on to say: “she wished all photoshoots were like this”.
I hope that in addition to liking their photos, the girls will take the concept to heart. One mother told me on the day of the session that she wished she could get her daughter to leave the house like that more often. As I’ve followed up with everyone after the project, I am happy to announce that some of the girls have indeed made some changes. Jennifer B. said that her daughter “goes without makeup more often and is starting to love her body more.” How awesome is that!!
Here are a few photos that my friend Allen Lash took of the gallery event at Event1013.
Come back often, as I’ll be writing more about this project in the near future!
xoxoxo, Alice