There is a simple beauty in flowers that is appreciated and valued by people. The fact that they transform from seeds to complex colors and shapes is thought of as remarkable and unique. One cycle that is similar to this is the period of growth teens go through. We sprout from various places, and grow into ourselves like flowers. This project is a bridge that connects the beauty of flowers to the beauty of teens. My project shows the internal and external beauty in teens by covering them in flowers.
When searching for subjects for this project, I asked friends and posted a status on Facebook to see if anyone outside of my immediate circle would want to participate. As a result, I got messaged by various people (all girls), who would love to be a part of the project. I explained what the purpose was and what I would be doing and they were thrilled with the idea and couldn’t wait. Though I wasn’t exactly asking them to do anything extreme, I was surprised by how little convincing it took to cover my subjects in flowers. As I spoke to my subjects, I found that they all wanted to help not only my subjects understand my intentions, but others.
Body positivity isn’t common in teens, and they knew that. These are not girls without insecurities, these are girls that were willing to embrace them and flourish despite them. As I was taking photos, one girl said “oh gosh these jeans are tight and i’m going to have rolls but I don’t even care because of the purpose of the project”. This surprised me, not only because I never thought that she would be insecure about her body, but because she completely understood my intentions. While I didn’t have malicious intent to make my subjects look bad, I wasn’t going for an artificial sultry Facebook profile look. I wanted the photos to look honest and bare in emotion. My subjects surprised me by understanding exactly what I wanted and doing their best to produce it. In one situation, two of my subjects posed in a bralette in the January winter while it was snowing simply because I wanted natural lighting. This obviously made my work much easier but added to what was originally a two dimensional project by giving the layer of subjects intention on top of my own.
Additionally, there is a delicacy to girls that the flowers portray, both beautiful and both deserving of appreciation.
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