BOOK ONE

KELLY MERCHANT AKIRA OHISO ELLIE OHISO

PHO

TO

GRAPHY

F

OR

GIR

LS

BOOK ONE

photography & concept:KELLY MERCHANT

interviews & forward:AKIRA OHISO

creative direction & design:ELLIE OHISO

published by:OHISO

copy editing by:DONATA C. MARCUS

FOR MORE INFO:www.photography4girls.com

www.kellymerchant.com www.ohiso.com

© Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.

PHO

TO

GRAPHY

F

OR

GIR

LS

I wasn’t challenged on what I grew up internalizing as a male. I cry for the person I was. I remember being a child and thinking boys were better than girls. That’s what I saw in society. As the father of two boys, I fell into masculinity without question. When I had my daughter, it changed how I parented. Without insinuating, she started to question whether it’s good to be a girl. These views just happened due to cultural immersion. As she gets older, I’m pondering what it means to be an American girl growing up and then what kind of woman she will one day become. I want to be a part of that and make sure she is getting the right information as opposed to something she is hearing on TV, in the movies or from friends and society. She will confront stereotypes and biases from a patriarchal society so helping her with that, that’s going to be part of my work with her. And raising two boys, I want to teach them that you have to respect women and that there is equality. Had a woman done the interviews for this book, they may relate more, saying, “Yes, I know.” Here I am at 45 interviewing these women about what it means to be a woman growing up in America; it was eye opening on an emotional level. Yes, you intellectualize that men throughout history have treated women poorly, but hearing these stories you see how difficult it is to be a woman today. I was open to listening as opposed to being judgmental. Anyone who is open-minded can’t hear these stories and not be touched by them. You have to put yourself in that space. I hope younger readers will be inspired about where we are heading. The fact that women can speak their minds and be open - that is something to look forward to. Women are going to continue to have stronger voices in society and their voices are going to be heard. I believe in the next 50 years the leadership role women are going to take in the country and the world is going to be unprecedented. Men and patriarchy are going to have to be more comfortable with that.

FORWARDAkira Ohiso

1

It is difficult to see why photography has not been more taken up by girls, either as a recreation or as a profession, for it seems to be an art for which

they are peculiarly fitted. There are, indeed, few pursuits which require such rigid attention to cleanliness, delicacy of manipulation and patience;

these things, which are virtues at all times, in photography become positive necessities; but girls are not generally deficient in these qualities...

- PHOTOGRAPHY FOR GIRLS, 1892

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2

I found this excerpt in an encyclopedia from 1892. It made me laugh instead of feeling sad, which may mean I’m used to hearing things like this.

I’ve wanted to do a project for a while with the women I’ve photographed - some over a period of 10 years. It’s interesting to document how someone changes in that time and how through certain periods of their lives they are willing to share more or they choose to share less. Photography for Girls just brought the project into perspective. It was the glue that put the women, the photos, the interviews together. They are not really my muses; it’s really a collaborative process. These women have guided my photographic body of work simply with their willingness to share a part of themselves with me which adds depth to the image. It sounds simple and easy, but it’s a courageous and generous gift. Seeing yourself through someone else’s eye is a powerful and empowering experience. I wanted that for these women. I want them to see what I see in them. Commercially it is what I do, photograph beautiful people. But no matter what you look like, what age or ethnicity you are, these woman share a kernel of self doubt.

I hope that men view this project as a window into a woman’s world, the women they love, to glimpse the complexities, the balancing acts women perform.

I think most women feel pressure to be everything – successful, beautiful, happy, nice, a good mother, wife, sister or daughter. These labels; some of them are based on a woman’s relationship to someone else.

I do think there is a short hand when a woman photographs a woman. It is innate; it is an instinct. In my experience women photographers are generally more interested in creating an intimate, real moment that is not just about physical beauty and not just capturing sexuality, anger, sadness, happiness.

When I was assisting I only knew one other female assistant and we would get called in if there was any nudity going on because they didn’t want a male assistant. On the other hand, we rarely got fashion location work as we were told we couldn’t lift as much as the males. That’s insulting to both sexes. Most of the male assistants I worked with treated me as an equal. I did feel the male gaze from a fellow assistant a few times while working which shocked me. It made it very hard for me to work which just made me mad at myself instead of placing the blame where it belonged.

I was reading about a swimsuit model’s experience being photographed by a handsome male photographer and she said, “Well, he does make it really easy to be sexy.” And I was like, “Great, thanks for that….”

-kelly merchant

3

EST

YNI used to live in Michigan and had gone a number of times to a

women’s music festival, which is a women-only event. We stopped for gas. I was standing outside the gas station when my friend went inside to pay and I pulled up my skirt, I had a long skirt on, to check my tan and then I looked up and there was a guy in a car watching me and in that moment I understood what those women had been telling me before – that the experience of being in a woman-only space is a different experience. In New York City, the predatory gaze on the subway and on the street is like, “Whoa!” Watching men watching girls. Every time I walk out of the house I think about what I am wearing. And mostly the reason I think about what I am wearing is because, “Is it safe?” Margaret Atwood said, “Men are afraid women are going to laugh at them and women are afraid men are going to kill them.” I feel like I’ve learned to read a fashion magazine in a way that isn’t going to leave me with self-loathing. I don’t know how to override the viscerally visual response, even if I know everything has been photoshopped, even if I know people are being selected that are not a good representation of humanity, even with all of that stuff, it isn’t particularly helpful to see. Alison Bechdel is a comic book writer. She used to do this comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. In it, there were two women who were going to a movie theater. One of the women said, “I have this base-line standard of what movies I’ll watch. There has to be at least two women in the movie, the women actually have to have names, they have to have a conversation with each other and that conversation has to not be about a guy.” And it’s incredibly hard to find those movies. It’s heartbreakingly hard. A lot of my very favorite movies don’t meet that standard. So, what that means is, all of the time, when I want to be entertained, when I want to watch movies and TV, I’m having to put myself in the shoes of someone who really doesn’t know what it’s like to be me. There is an incredible power to seeing yourself represented. The opposite is also true.

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 4

4 ELLENVIL

LE, NY

JEW

ELRY D

ESIG

NER/SCULPTO

R

IT’S HEARTBREAKINGLY HARD.

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5

BE PREPARED FOR REJECTION.

SHA

LYN

II feel like I have two lives: I’m a mental health therapist working in an outpatient substance abuse clinic in midtown Manhattan, and I also do modeling. I am the black sheep of my entire family because I have this other side to me that I want to cultivate. I did a cosmetic ad for Iman and my photo looked really cool, but my nose was thin. I said, “What happened to my nose?” That was kind of awkward. Whenever I shoot with Kelly she doesn’t photoshop. She is portraying me. I haven’t done too many fashion shows as I’ve gotten older because I don’t like the energy. A lot of times I am standing next to girls who are 14. I would tell them, “Don’t get too serious about modeling. Not every photographer is going to love your look. Be prepared for rejection. That is just part of life.” I don’t see equal rights for women being portrayed around the world. When I look at India, where my parents are from, I don’t really see it. I was having an argument with my dad. I don’t let things go easily. If I have something that just does not sit well with me I am going to say something until we can rectify it or come to some sort of agreement. If someone is treating me a certain way because of my culture or gender, I speak up. I even speak up for other people. Some people disregard that I am of Indian descent. They will just consider me white. They think it’s their way of complimenting me because we are equal now. No! I am a minority and I am proud. When I go to India, I just can’t be tossed aside because I am a woman. I don’t wear saris because it is so hot. I dress like an American. Walking through the streets with mom it is always the men staring at me. They’ll come really close to me and look up and down. And when that happens to the local women, they just take it or walk away. I would look back at the men: “What do you want?” It makes my cousins uncomfortable. I get, “She is such an American.” I am standing up for myself and that is such an American thing to do? I’ve never been one of those girls growing up who played house. I am an oddball in that respect. Never, “You are going to be the daddy and I am the mommy.” Oddly, enough, I do have baby names picked out.

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 2

8 NEW

YO

RK C

ITY

MO

DEL/MENTAL H

EALTH T

HERAPIS

T

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7

VE

RAAs an art model, I am nude 90% of the time because that is

what I love and specialize in doing. The other 10% I am either draped, doing creative fashion, or a boudoir shoot. It does not make a difference if a man or woman photographs me nude, but it does matter on the intention behind the nudity. I appreciate knowing what the creative intentions are of the shoot, but not about conceded pornographic or sexual agendas. If a photographer would like to shoot an explicit theme, I don’t take the job. I don’t get many requests like this because it’s pretty obvious in my portfolio that I’m strictly fine art. When I am nude modeling for photography, I feel really good. There is this mixture of going inward and outward, stretching and feeling how my body likes to move. This feeling is very grounding to me. There is excitement that I am nude and moving freely while someone is capturing it and has this creative passion and appreciation. I feel that I share a real part of myself every time I do a shoot; I’m standing there naked ready to jump, dance, curl up, balance, laugh, smile, or even be completely still. I’m not much of a talker; art modeling is how I express myself. I speak with my body. I see myself naked a lot. I’ve seen all my angles and emotions that I can’t see in the mirror. I’ve learned that I like to see myself in motion and when one looks in the mirror, it’s a bit motionless, only showing a couple angles and usually in vain. I love seeing myself through other people’s eyes, and with real emotion. It makes me feel alive and that I exist beyond my own head. I have had some downs though, and have felt very unsatisfied with my body image, but I pick myself up pretty quickly. The media can affect my perception of my body because I am not a typical model. I have a belly, broad shoulders and stand 5’6”, shorter than the other models on TV but I have my own unique body that I offer for art and inspiration.

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 2

5 HUDSO

N, NY

ARTIS

T'S

MO

DEL

I HAVE MY OWN UNIQUE BODY THAT I OFFER.

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9

TAKE US MORE SERIOUSLY.

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ER

IKA

AGE 1

6 HIG

H F

ALLS, NY

STUDENT

This was my first photo shoot. I’ve had low self-esteem for a lot of my life. Knowing that someone would consider me for a photo shoot made me feel better. I don’t read beauty magazines, but do catch glimpses of models posing on the covers. I modeled it after that a little. I feel like there should be more diversity in body types because we can’t have everyone believing that it is normal to be super skinny. When everyone sees models with perfect clear skin they feel worse about themselves if they have acne. Pimples can be beautiful. Representation is so important. Probably there are situations where I could use the power dynamic that is in place between men and women to my advantage. A lot of men think of women as being ditzy and dumb. Let’s say I could pull over on the side of a highway and look all confused and needed someone to fix my car, maybe a guy mechanic would just pull over. We have to give girls options that are not extreme femininity. Society raises people into thinking girls and women are less. I try to fight that notion. All over the world girls and women are rising up against all the sexism they face. It certainly isn’t over, but more and more people are becoming aware of it. Promoting education for girls is so important. I know I’m going to be an activist and a feminist and when I grow up. I am going to have more power to promote that. Take us more seriously. Shot in High Falls, NY

11

AN

AI’m a bit of a tomboy so I usually get along with men a lot better than women. I don’t like pink. I climbed a lot more trees than the doll houses I played with. I was always jealous when my little brother got a remote control car. I’m very much my father’s son. I was the oldest child. I chopped firewood. I have neon green eye shadow with metallic black eyeliner because I want to go to Karaoke tonight, but ask me why my girlfriend is mad at me and I don’t have a clue. I don’t identify with girls you would call “girly girls.” If you think about people you have known for a very long time and try to think of your first impression of them it’s very hard. I couldn’t tell if these people are attractive or not. I knew my boyfriend so well that I couldn’t see his face anymore. His inner-self deteriorated his outer beauty. Beauty has a shelf life. I’ve always been a strong-willed and opinionated person. Once I hit the age where my beauty, intelligence, and will power became sexuality, it really exploded in my face. Not all beautiful women lead the life that people think beautiful women live. Gender, age, race, politics: once you are in the photographer-model role all of those things fall away and you are trying to accomplish something together. There is definitely more equality for women, but it’s a bit like racism where most of us are on board, but the system is so difficult to change. If someone said, “Yo! What’s up bitch?” That would not bother me at all. If someone said, “You are such a bitch.” I would say, “What the hell, man?” I don’t view words as having their own power. It’s context and what that word means to that person.

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 2

6 PRAGUE

ARTIS

T/BARTENDER/MO

DEL

BEAUTY HAS ASHELF LIFE.

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13

PE

PP

YI think it’s amazing how little girls have so much hope for the future, but as you grow you are given the stereotype that girls are not good enough. Let little girls see how great they are and how great they can be. I relate more with the little girl. If society hasn’t changed me yet, I don’t think it’s going to. I think we are slowly working towards complete equality, but there is still that stereotype that women are not equal. Any sport you play with your class, the boys pick the boys first and the girls get picked last. That kind of thing. I’ve never had the experience where I was inferior to a boy or where someone treated me inferior to a boy. I’ve only worked with good photographers and each photographer has his or her own vision and I think it’s wonderful to work with different kinds of people. You can try to be more polite than the person before you to get what you want. I like to come up with things myself, but I do like listening to music when I model. It gets me in the groove, my own mindset. I think women are portrayed…I don’t know… be happy and healthy and that’s all that really matters. Models are looking healthier today, they are not as skinny anymore, they’re more like average people, the girl next door, the girl you see walking down the street, or the guy. Anyone. People are fighting for what they believe in and sticking up for what’s right. Beauty should come from inside, not only the outside. I mean if you are a guy and you like the things that are labeled “only for girls” I don’t see why it should be labeled “only for girls.” I think it’s all context. Because when we are called a girl, we all have a little girl inside of us forever and ever, but we all strive to be a women, sophisticated, polite and well-mannered. Always enjoy what you do, just strive to be the best you can be.

Makeup by Lexi Damico

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 1

7 NEW

PALTZ, NY

STUDENTWE ALL HAVE A

LITTLE GIRL INSIDE OF US.

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15

CA

SSA

ND

RAI find myself on film…it is nerve-racking because I don’t

necessarily like the way I look. I have a much broader sense of photography now than I did when I was younger. It was more superficial when I was first starting out, it was more sparkly and glamorous. I learned that there is so much you can capture behind the lens that you don’t really expect to see when you are looking at yourself in photos. When you see the print you say, “Wow, I can’t believe she was able to capture that.” I wanted to see my self in photos since I usually don’t look at myself. I had to face the camera. A lot of Kelly’s most raw and beautiful pieces that capture the best of me are the ones where she photographs me at my most vulnerable, where I don’t have on makeup. I’ve learned to transfer that negativity into beauty. I never felt comfortable with the way women are viewed. I thought it was overtly sexual and I tend to be very modest. I don’t like when women try to sell themselves because they have long legs and beautiful torsos and beautiful breasts and puffy lips and doe eyes. I think sexuality can be a vulnerability. I never thought sexuality was an admirable quality. I tend to have the physical qualities that people are saying they want. I’m thin, I have long legs, I’m tall, I have blonde hair. I have those qualities that people have always traditionally said they want. I think the female form is beautiful. But I think it can be abused. Part of my background is in teaching. My degree work is in elementary education. One of the things we focus on a lot is that we enter the classroom as unbiased as possible. It’s really sad how bias can effect a child’s long-term future if the child grows up thinking, well, I can’t wear blue and play cars because that’s what boys do and people are going to think I’m a boy. The labels that are placed on their foreheads, they are not free. There is no freedom in that.

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 3

2 NEW

PALTZ, NY

MO

THER

I NEVER THOUGHT SEXUALITY WAS AN ADMIRABLE QUALITY.

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17

WIN

IMy mother had no money; she was very poor growing up. I think that was what was behind her drive. She was an independent woman way before her time. She worked in a man’s world. In 1956, she went to work at Abraham & Strauss in the china department. They loved her because certain china you could stand on and my mother used to put the cups down and stand on them. That of course impressed them. Because of her talent in the china department, they brought her up to the men’s department of major appliances. As a woman she had an advantage. There were only men, but now here’s a women; she does the cooking. She out sold everybody. I have some wonderful pictures of her dressed in men’s clothes with a tie on and a suitcase. Her family had rented a little place in High Falls. Her family’s summer home in High Falls was near the aqueduct. Sometimes if her mother wanted her to get a loaf of bread, instead of walking up to the aqueduct she would swim across the creek. She would swim with one hand in the air so she could carry a loaf of bread. She died the day after Christmas. She still had her mind; it was her body that failed. This photo reminds me of how tired she was. Not that life beat her down, but at 96 she was feeling it. She was a cancer survivor. She had a radical mastectomy in her fifties. She was very spunky well into her eighties, although she did crash. Suddenly it was the walker, dependence…not that she would ever admit it, she had everybody fooled when you would come to visit. She was a devil. She was a leader. She would take over and perhaps that’s why I withdrew a little. She created the High Falls cookbook. She was an artist. She was a colorist for Arnold Constable and used oil paints and Vaseline. She was very creative. She started the High Falls flea market for the civic association. She was generous because she wanted people to learn. Her body failed. She did everything she wanted to do. One of her parting words at 96 was, “It’s not long enough Linda.”

Shot in High Falls, NY

DIE

D A

T 9

6 HIG

H F

ALLS, NY

SALESPERSO

N/ARTIS

TIN

TERVIE

W O

F H

ER D

AUGHTER L

INDA

HER PARTING WORDS AT 96: IT’S NOT LONG ENOUGH.

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19

IT’S GIRLS WHO ARE TRAPPED IN THAT LIE.

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20

EM

MA

AGE 1

2 NO

RTH B

RANCH, NY

STUDENT &

ARTIS

T

People ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I say I want to be an artist. “Are you sure? There are other jobs with good salaries.” I reply that I am an artist and that’s what I am, and I can’t change that for the world. They say “Oh, interesting” and kind of look at me weird, but that’s what I do. I sculpt and paint. I do a lot of pen and ink stuff. I make anatomically correct organs. When I tell people, they are weirded out by it, but that’s my thing. So you’re a girl artist and there aren’t that many girl artists. There’s Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh and all these other male artists. I went to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum in Santa Fe. That was really inspiring. I thought maybe I should not be an artist and be someone else that I am not, but then I say, “That is not who I am.” I have to be who I am and do what I want to do. That’s what everybody should do. Since I got into my bicycle accident my teeth were my big problem. I’m really self-conscious of them. My teeth were straight before and now I definitely need braces. I didn’t want to smile at all. I got into being more dramatic. I am not stereotypically blonde, blue eyes, straight hair, perfect body, skinny. As for boys, girls and boys are really separated. They don’t sit together, they don’t hang out together. I think boys think they are better. Girls are supposed to be objects. I wore boy sneakers for a while and people were like “Why are you wearing boy sneakers? Those are for boys.” I like those sneakers. Sometimes I’m a girly girl; I’m wearing a dress, but sometimes I like to play outside and get dirt all over my face. It’s girls who are trapped in that lie. It’s not their fault. It is what the world has become.

Shot in High Falls, NY

21

EST

HE

RIntimate photography can be more comfortable with a woman, depending on the dynamic between the photographer and the model. How you click, how you are approaching the project. Sometimes it’s acting because they require a whole story and a character. When it becomes intimate, my relationship with the photographer becomes very important. Can I feel empowered by it? Confident in my sexuality? There was a particular shoot where I walked out because he was talking to me in a certain way that made me feel very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to be sexy anymore. It became about fulfilling his fantasy. There is nothing real about fashion. It is just a marketing tool. I know what goes on behind the scenes and Photoshop is very popular. If you are trying to relate to a 20-year old when you are in your late 30s that’s not going to help your mental state and self-esteem. Always be healthy and good to your body. Don’t starve yourself, accept who you are. In our culture it really seems like femininity has been replaced by image-related ideas. I would say I probably have done so too, subconsciously. I had a flat tire a few months ago and I was getting ready to change it. A guy pulled up and he offered to change my tire. He said something like, “you shouldn’t have to do that.” I thought to myself, “I know how to do it, but if you want to do it, go ahead.” Maybe that’s how I use it to my advantage, the damsel in distress even though I am not the damsel in distress at all. When you say “for girls” I immediately think about my 8-year old daughter. Why is it for girls, why would she like this? It depends on what it is. It’s more about guiding her and showing her all of the others things that are around. I think it’s good to let her see what the world has to offer. It is something that you need to talk about with your children and not just with girls. Parents with boys should really talk about it. That’s the harder part, raising boys who don’t think women have to look or act a certain way.

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 3

9 RO

XBURY, NY

MO

DEL/PO

ET/PAIN

TER/REALTO

R

THERE’S NOTHING REAL ABOUT FASHION.

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23

LA

UR

EN

CEI have been lucky enough to feel comfortable with photographers.

It’s been easy for me to be relaxed and to think about what I am trying to portray and what the photographer might be looking for. I am definitely a shy person. I think modeling helped with my confidence, especially working with someone like Kelly. She makes you feel good about yourself and not in some superficial way. It is nice to work with someone who wants you to feel beautiful in the picture. Travel to another country and women are treated differently. I wonder if it is a little bit different for women in the South? I’m 25 and I still have a lot to learn about where women stand. Women have come a long way; I am lucky that I can do things like vote. I’m lucky that there aren’t a lot of the hurdles my grandmother had to go through. A lot of work still needs to be done. I see it in my everyday work life how men will treat my boss who’s a male and they will treat him differently, speak to him differently than the other three females that work in the office. It’s just a small little doctor’s office, yet I still see it. I’ve been fortunate. I probably got a restaurant job because I am attractive. I’ve walked in somewhere and I can tell it worked out that way. I don’t know if you would call it discrimination, but it is a bias. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? It’s hard to say. It gives me an advantage, but is it fair to the next person? I don’t think so. “It is how things are supposed to be” is a lot of people’s mindsets. Everyone wants to put their two cents in about how we should be raising our families whether it should be with a mother and father or a mother and a mother…What’s for girls and what’s for boys, somehow it all ties together. Who is it for us to choose if it makes that little boy happy or that little girl happy?

Makeup by Lexi Damico

Shot in High Falls, NY

AGE 2

5 ALBANY, NY

MO

DEL/RESTAURANT W

ORKER

A LOT OF WORK STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE.

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25

SIM

IIt used to make me feel vulnerable to be photographed, especially by people that I didn’t know. As I got to see myself more in photographs, I started to become less inhibited about who I was. I became comfortable. I realized for me it was about honesty. Is that what I look like? As a woman, I get my inspiration from old school classical beauty. Women just knew how to wear their shape. I realized that as long as you can have some type of shape, it doesn’t matter if you are big or small, it just matters how you carry your shape. Imperfection is being filtered out. Everything is affected. The human to human contact, when you see someone in person it is different than when you see them in a photograph. There is no filter in real life. In the music business discrimination is inherent. They don’t know what to do with me. I’m a mixed woman. I’m black and Jewish. My dad was a black Jamaican. My mother was Jewish and white from Miami Beach. Then they had me and I was all of these things. Everyone has a need to put everyone into categories. Somehow I always ended up in front of the camera. They’d say “I like the way you look.” I was different. There was no category for me. As a creative person, it has forced me to expand my mind and I am sympathetic to everybody because I see all sides. I loved fashion magazines as a kid. I was always happy when there was a brown girl. I was always looking for myself in these pictures and magazines. I was always trying to identify. Ten years ago, male rappers had women in their videos who were naked. Now the women rappers are making all the money. They look like the women in those old videos but now they are saying, “This is my ass and I am shaking it and I’m bringing home the money and I’m in charge. I’m not in your video, you’re in my video.” It takes a long time to understand yourself as a woman. I think it’s nice to keep a certain mystery because I think feminine powers are beautiful. Don’t be afraid of who you are, express yourself, talk about it when you are upset, don’t put the bat away.

Shot at Spillian in Fleischmanns, NY

AGE 3

4 W

OO

DSTO

CK, NY

SIN

GER/SO

NGW

RIT

ER

THERE IS NO FILTER IN REAL LIFE.

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27

SAR

AHI have rheumatoid arthritis that was brought on by Lyme Disease

and the disease also gave me a communication disorder called aphasia. My ability can change from week to week and even throughout the day. My body has changed so much. There is no before or after photo. I can see the physical differences. When I look in the mirror I don’t recognize myself and that’s okay. We are bombarded with the message that your value is the control over your physical appearance and body. That’s removed when you are disabled. I don’t have control over my body, the disease does. I have to find value in what does work in my body. I wanted to photograph my mobility equipment because our society judges disability as a handicap, as less than normal. We are used to seeing people as fully clothed, fully armored. It is arresting to see a confident nude person wearing heels in mobility equipment. I hope it gets people to think about how we look at disabled people. I have a term: “mascoting.” We look at people with a disability and use them to inspire ourselves. It’s a kind of objectification. Discrimination is subtle, overt, constant and everywhere. There are a lot of negative cultural messages in seeing middle-aged women as sexual beings and disabled people as sexual beings. We have a gender-neutral household. I consider myself a feminist. I have two sons so I’m surrounded by men. It is not good when we tell people that there are certain behaviors and expectations according to gender, especially because there are more than two genders. It leads to discrimination and limits. I would hope my boys will identify as feminists. They are comfortable wearing that label. Feminism is simply equality. In order to raise feminist sons, you just have to tell them about life, share your experiences and current events and make them question the messages they receive. I hope Photography for Girls is seen less as an idea for what your limits are and what you should cut yourself down to, and more a project that shows that everything is possible, and the unique aspect of being a woman.

Shot in Poughkeepsie, NY

AGE 3

9 PO

UGHKEEPSIE

, NY

ANIM

AL R

ESCUER

WE ARE USED TO SEEING PEOPLE AS FULLY CLOTHED, FULLY ARMORED.

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29

CREATED IN THE CATSKILLSwww.photography4girls.com