These are a series of photographs which I took for the theme which I chose Girlhood.
Girlhood is everything about growing up from being a young girl to a woman, it is the highs and the lows, everything that comes with being female. Girls go through so much which is not spoken about enough, especially now with even higher expectations of them to be perfect, due to social media. Many girls go through eating disorders and many other insecurities which affect their mental health. So much is expected of them and once they fail to succeed, it all comes crashing down. This topic means a lot to me as i have struggled in the past with being insecure about how i look, how I act and I can relate to many girls out there.
With this project I would like to show both the positive nd negative aspects of being a girl and to help give confidence to those who don't.
Girlhood. My girlhood started when I first painted my nails, the year I started doing my makeup, stealing from my mother and never feeling whole without it again. It began the time they told me to sit with my legs crossed, while the boys were covered in grass and mud and it would go unspoken. And the first time I knew my girlhood was a weakness was when the boys were playing sports and dare not look at the girls on the playground. It is being told that silence is kindness and good girls are polite to the boys who “bully”, it is because “they like you” they said. I can't remember when abuse and love became so close, so easily confused for one another.
Girlhood. It is finding out the beauty of female friendship, even though it took 16 years. It is sleepovers with your best friend, gossiping that makes this difficult time worth it. It is calling that one girl when you get good or bad news, or even a minor inconvenience. It is knowing you are thinking the same thing with just one look while having a conversation with multiple people. It is going to the toilets together, like you’re unable to go alone. It is crying on her lap about being burnout from school or the boy who turned out to be something you don't deserve. Girlhood is the message sent in the phone thrown across the floor.
Girlhood. It is finding peace in the little things, putting on your favorite perfume, lighting the candle you forgot you had. It is planning a trip knowing it will never get out of the groupchat. It is having a hair tie on your wrist knowing it is not yours to begin with, or being given a tampon under the bathroom stall, not knowing who it is giving it to you. It is holding the hair back of someone you don't even know. It is being told that the classroom is not a runway show, and that we should not draw attention to our looks, but when we don’t try we are lazy.
Girlhood. It is not getting the same attention in sports as guys, working just as hard as them yet we are thrown to the side and not looked at. It is being told we are too ambitious and need to stop overreacting, but also speak our mind and have your own opinion. It is sitting for hours in front of the mirror questioning if you’re good enough.
Girlhood is the beauty of confusion, the excitement of figuring out who you are. It is painful and sad, but also beautiful and delicate. Today i’m a teenage girl tomorrow will be different.
The first artist I was inspired by is Carrie Mae Weems, she was born in Portland, Oregon, United States on April 20th 1953. She is a well known Contemporary American Artist and photographer who is best known for her Kitchen table series. Her career started at the age of seventeen, when she joined Anna Halprin’s Experimental San Francisco’s Dancers workshop and later moved to New York where she attended photography classes at the studio Museum in Harlem. She began experimenting with dance using her body as a performative element in her self portraits and her first camera was a birthday present from her first boyfriend.
Her Kitchen Table series are the photos which I liked the most. It is among the most significant photographic achievements in contemporary art. In 20 photographs and 14 text panels, Weems features herself in carefully staged scenes around the same kitchen table, revealing intimate moments of everyday life such as laughing with friends, studying alongside her daughter, or having a drink with her next-door neighbor. She portrays her different emotions and actions throughout the day.
Carrie Mae Weems uses a single source of light in a dark room to draw all the attention to the center of the photograph. She keeps the positioning of the camera and the frame fairly similar in each photo she takes keeping her main subject in the middle, only changing who is around her and what she is doing. Her photos are also taken from afar and zoomed in slightly, this can be seen as there is no warping of the background everything is straight.
The editing process: I took the photos all in the same position and edited them to match Carrie Mae Weems work. I used photoshop to brighten the back wall of my photos as my center source of light was further away then hers. I turned the photos black and white to match her shades. I also cropped my images slightly to make my subject in the middle.
In this first photo my model is doing her makeup, it is stereotypical that a girl would do her makeup. In this photo she is confident and proud of her beauty, which will later contrast with the other photos. This photo portrays how girls find comfort in getting ready, not for anyone else but for themselves. She has all her makeup scattered on the table, showing that she is not bothered or precise about what she is doing. Her phone is also on the table playing some music while she gets ready.In this photo I wanted to portray that she is feeling good in her own skin as all girls have these moments when they feel their best, and this is when they also have the most confidence.
Photo number 2 is a big contrast from the first photo, the mood has totally been changed. In the first photo the black and white made her look majestic and positive however here it has turned it into the complete opposite. She is tired and depressed comparing herself to photoshopped, skinny models who have the ideal, perfect body. She has food in front of her and is refusing to eat it as she cannot bear to gain any weight. This photo represents what too many girls go through, comparing themselves to unrealistic standards and hurting themselves to reach these unattainable goals. On the table you can also see a packet of gum, this is a popular trend for teen girls to do, only eating gum and drinking water all day. The dog in the photo is looking at the full plate of soup, but at the same time being of comfort to her.
The third photo has her screaming with mascara and tears running down her cheeks, she is frustrated and has had enough. This photo shows how unnoticable she is as the person in the back is carrying on with his life and not even noticing that she is upset behind him.
Girls often tend to hold back their emotions then it all bursts out at once. She is frustrated and the reason to why she feels this way can be interpreted in many different ways. It can be anything for being angry at herself, the boy behind her or how the world treats women.
