LILY HALLIDAY
Y O U T H
' S T R O N G I S T H E N E W P R E T T Y '
Through more thorough research into Parker, I found an article online the Daily Mail showing a larger range of photographs explaining their actual meaning and 'empowerment'. She explained within the article that she wanted to capture her daughters and their friends within a series of powerful photography that celebrates their strength and confidence, while highlighting what it means to be a girl today.
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She quotes: 'There's a lot of pressure for girls - and women - to look a certain way, act in a certain manner, and I wanted to let my daughters know that who they naturally are is enough.' - this quote in itself puts forward my intentions of wanting to show stereotypes and how certain people are expected to act a certain way, in this case young girls. Although I don’t want to focus particularly on females in my project, I would like to bring forward the idea of people having expectations of others.
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She continued to explain that initially she captured the photos to record their childhood, but over time the project started to evolve into something more. 'The images changed' she said as she started to see patterns and recognise that the images where the girls were authentically captured were the strongest images. As she continued to take photos, Parker kept the idea in mind aiming to empower the girls and honour their personal interest whatever thy may be. This makes my initial interpretation of her work almost link in with the actual meaning behind the photographs.
To work in the style of Parker, I could identify and consider the certain interests of my subjects, these being my two younger sisters.
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The Daily Mirror article itself even mentions the aspect of stereotyping - 'The images of Ella, Alice, and their friends are black and white and free of frilly dresses, dolls or anything else stereotypically associated with young girls.' This shows that stereotyping especially focused around children is becoming more acknowledged because it is so common. The article follows on to state that instead Parker captured the girls playing sports, running through sprinklers and horsing around, essentially exploring their everyday adventures. Following on to look more closely into some of her photos, it began to become very clear about the theme that she was putting forward and the message she wanted to portray. The strong expressions and poses within the photographs below in my opinion
A L W A Y S - #RUNLIKEAGIRL
To further emphasise the idea of empowerment of young as a possible idea to explore later in my project, I have researched into the 'Always' ad campaign. With the selection of adverts I have chosen, they explore the views of young girls and how they feel within today’s society. I love the power adverts themselves can have on society and how they are sculpted to portray a more intense message.
The first advert, shows the differences in how young women, boys and young girls perceive the phrase, “like a girl.” The idea of perception of young people is an aspect I believe would work well in the development of my ideas and how they can be misinterpreted or influenced by the wrong people at this vulnerable age.
E M P O W E R M E N T S H O O T
​To work in the style of Parker further, I have carried out another shoot exploring the idea of girl empowerment rather than the exploration of the expression of children’s personalities. As within these photographs Parker focuses on her daughter’s hobby football, I am going to capture my younger sister in the uniform of her favourite hobby, karate. I also plan to use the same strong positions and expressions as Parker, to help emphasise the message I am portraying within this experiment so far in my project. As my favourite back drop out of Parkers work was the brick background, I will experiment using this. I believe this will really help to portray the power of the young girl against a harsh background.
I have found this shoot successful in portraying my ideas so far about girl empowerment. Even though I plan to edit my photos in greyscale like Parker, the bold red colour represents danger and strength, something you don’t usually associate with this age group and gender through society. Like parker, I also set my photographs against a brick wall as I previously mentioned. I found this very effective and showed the contrast of an innocent sweet little girl against a rough, harsh surrounding. To work purposefully in the style of Parker, I have also focused on the positions of my model, and how this has further emphasise my theme such as closed fits, crouching against the floor and very moody, strong facial expressions. Without the use of these facial expressions in my work, I believe the photographs wouldn’t be as effective. Therefore, this is an aspect I would like to continue within my work.
E D I T S
The greyscale effect I have added to a selection of my favourite photographs from my shoot has made them even more effective. Even though the bright red colour has been replaced, the karate suit is still obvious showing strength and power. This is contrasted by the freckles, baby hairs and youthful appearance shown emphasised by the greyscale effect and increased contrast that I created on Photoshop, which helps to emphasise the idea on power in young girls. Although, at this point in time I would like to experiment with more than one model for this theme like I did previously at the very start of my project, to see whether the aspect of having more young girls emphasises the idea of them empowering each other...
E M P O W E R M E N T S H O O T 2
I found that the use of multiple models has worked well in emphasising girl empowerment. I still set the backdrop against a brick wall, as I found this was very effective previously. As the clothing aspect in my previous shoot worked well in emphasising my theme, I have dressed the girls in more sporty clothes also including the Nike slogan 'Just Do It', creating the idea of strength and power even more. Like before, I focused on the facial expressions and poses as Parker, including a football this time round. I found my model sitting on this was effective in showing the hobbies young girls can have that aren’t usually associated with their age or gender. Working in the style of Parker, I attempted to recreate the lolly pop effect of the girl holding it in your mouth, which I felt further emphasises the idea of her youth and childlike behaviour. Although, I didn’t have a lolly pop available and therefore used a plastic tube o represent the lolly stick. This was less effective, but I believe if I were to include this lolly pop aspect later within my work it would be successful in portraying my models youth.
E D I T S
Like before, I have found that the greyscale effect added to the best selection of photographs makes them more visually effective and detailed like Parkers work. Working in the same way as previously, it helps to emphasise the girl’s youth showing their clear freckled skin. The position of the two girls wrapping their arms around each other helps to show how young girls can empower each other and how they can be their own inspiration. I have found this theme within my project so far successful, and love the aspect of the dark moody expressions and rough brick wall backdrops. Therefore, I would like to continue exploring something harsh that allows me to experiment further with these aspects.