JAYDIN // 12.27.15

So I did two shoots the other day, at my family's Christmas get together. This one is of my older cousin - the first one to be filmed. So enjoy, and go to this youtube video.

"The shoes make the outfit"

Jaydin was immediately baffled on her answer to the first question - I had to ask Wilson first, before getting it out her (thanks Wilson :))  

 Jaydin had such a poignant opinion on beauty and how you (as an individual) should feel about yours. To begin the interview, I had to bring up a conversation we had almost six months about self-confidence. She and I had a conversation about how important that is to have, so when she was so hesitant to answer the first question, it surprised me, honestly...

JUST A LIL NOTE

I just filmed a more elaborate explanation to this project and it is now up on YouTube. 

There will be more things not only dealing with this project but other things as well, so I highly recommend that you check it out :-) 

https://youtu.be/_hwmhyKdiO8 

BAHAR // 12.24.2015

Bahar is one of my chorus friends, and we never fail to have lovely conversations about things like religion and religious practices to things like YouTubers to things like if we want to pursue music as a career. She was the fourth person I did a shoot with. 

  1) Do you find yourself beautiful? Why?

  2) Do other people find you beautiful? 

  3) What is one thing you are confident about yourself (what is your security)?

  4) What is your biggest insecurity?

"I think all humans are beautiful… but no, because of society, i feel like they set standards that just make it, i don’t know what the word is, but unachievable for an average person to reach."

"Friends? Yes. Because they obviously are supportive, and stuff like that, especially my close friends from back home. They definitely, like, I don’t wear make up at all, so they say I’m beautiful. Boys? No. And society? No. And that’s pretty much all the people. "

"My skin, because it’s really clear. And that’s it."

"Body hair, like I don’t understand. Why are guys allowed to have arm hair, and body hair? (Do you shave your legs?) No, not in the winter. But in the summer. I dunno I like the feeling of shaved legs… And the fact that I have no chest, that too. "

Bahar's signature pose felt like it deserves a spot on her post. So here. Her signature pose as photographed in Epcot. 

Mostly shot on Christmas Eve featuring Bahar's wonderful gingerbread and also her bushes and bench, which obviously stole the show. 

MALHA // 12.19.2015

Malha was also one of my first shoot/interviews. It's interesting, the difference in the three girls I interviewed on the first day, and how they all varied in their confidence levels.

"Sometimes. Cause sometimes you’re in that confident mood and other times you see yourself and you’re like “well..maybe not”"

"People like my eyes and my hair, because it’s long and...

...my eyes are blue" 

"umm…should I have one? Am I supposed to have one of those…I’ll look into that haha."

"my face is really red if I don’t have foundation on and I really hate that. "

(The questions are in order from top to bottom: 

1) Do you find yourself beautiful? Why?

2) Do other people find you beautiful? What do they tell you is beautiful about you?

3) What is one thing you are confident about yourself (what is your security)?

4) What is your biggest insecurity?)

FAITH // 12.19.2015

Faith was also on my first day of shoots/interviews. She was the most confident of all three girls in such a charismatic way. 

"Yeah because self confidence. I don’t know how I’d explain it…rather be myself than other people have to like..yeah."

 "I like personality and I like my laugh because I snort when I laugh. I really enjoy my laugh."

"Compliments about my hair...

...and my pants. I don’t know why haha" 

unfortunately, I couldn't find a good picture for her last question, but her answer was : "My arm hair, not kidding whatsoever. Cause when I was younger people would see it and be like “Oh gorilla arm” because they're stupid and they're mean or whatever."

(The questions are in order from top to bottom:
1) Do you find yourself beautiful? Why?
2) Do other people find you beautiful? What do they tell you is beautiful about you?
3) What is one thing you are confident about yourself (what is your security)?
4) What is your biggest insecurity?)

ZOE // 12.19.2015

Zoe was one of the first people I shot/interviewed. I asked her more than the four questions, and was intrigued by her answers. It befuddled me that someone I think is so beautiful/gorgeous/pretty had been told the things she had been told

"No. because umm I guess I’m just like used to people telling I’m not beautiful, so I believe it. I don’t like myself."

"No one’s really ever specified something that they like about me. "

"Acceptance is beautiful, though"

"okay…you’re going to hate me about this. I really don’t like anything about myself. Cause there’s just like… I just don’t like it. (Why are you not confident?) Because okay, people don’t usually tell me that I’m like. I don’t have like the experience, I guess, with people telling me that I’m beautiful and people saying all this amazing stuff about me, because people don’t usually say anything like that to me. (why do you need people to tell you?) because everyone needs someone to tell them that they’re beautiful. You want acceptance, you know? (Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you want to be beautiful). But acceptance is beautiful"  

My scars. 

What surprised me the most is that I think Zoe is extremely beautiful. Not in the "slap you in the face kind" of beautiful - there's nothing special about that. Zoe is just one of those people who is beautiful' there is no denying that as a fact. Her laugh lightens the room, and you can tell how much she loves what she's talking about by the way her face lights up. When she talks about something important to her, she gives herself an aura - she is a force to be reckoned with. A very beautiful force.

(The questions are in order from top to bottom: 

1) Do you find yourself beautiful? Why?

2) Do other people find you beautiful? What do they tell you is beautiful about you?

3) What is one thing you are confident about yourself (what is your security)?

4) What is your biggest insecurity?)

A PROJECT ON PERCIEVED FEMALE BEAUTY

I've grown up in a generation where women are not confident about their bodies and/or physical appearance. I've grown up watching women like Angelina Jolie starve herself, simply because it makes her "more beautiful".

I want to know what the females that are around me, or have been around me, feel about their beauty. What they like about themselves, what they don't like.

I want to know what girls my age are thinking about their beauty - because (watch the cliche-ness) everyone is beautiful.

And that is a very important thing to understand.

___

Each person I photographed was given a set of four questions:
              1) Do you find yourself beautiful? Why?
              2) Do other people find you beautiful? What do they tell you is beautiful about you?
              3) What is one thing you are confident about yourself (what is your security)?
              4) What is your biggest insecurity?
Sometimes, I will ask more. I hope I will never ask fewer.

Let's see how this turns out.