I took these photos in a session for a friend’s portfolio. A few months later I looked at the unselected photos, and I noticed that the juxtaposition of elements, plus Georgia’s expression spoke to me. I realised that we were following stereotypical “feminine” guidelines while planning the shoot. The good part was that Georgia didn’t adapt her personality to these silly stereotypes and we didn’t push her to.
I realised these photos spoke to me as a creative-photographer and woman, about how much these old stereotypes and ideals are still present (for all genders) and how much they became part of our subconscious minds, the idea of what is “acceptable” unfortunately hasn’t disappeared, it has just translated into something else. I chose to apply this specific colour treatment and an excessive-imprecise retouch of the skin, to simultaneously resemble the aesthetic of old portraits and trendy new filters, as a message for my future self and colleagues; we must be aware of our unconscious bias and try to bring new inclusive ideas to our work. If we don’t expand our minds, we are adding to social inequalities, we are responsible for our society’s “collective imaginary” and we can make a change.
