WHEN I SEE A GIRL
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This photographic project examines the disconnect between societal ideals of girlhood and the harsh realities faced by young women across diverse communities worldwide. While conventional perspectives often characterize young girls through attributes of innocence, happiness, and potential—envisioning futures filled with educational opportunities, personal growth, and maternal fulfillment—this idealized narrative frequently diverges from lived experiences.
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The reality confronting many young women encompasses systematic exposure to various forms of social prejudice and violence, including street harassment, sexual assault, forced early marriage, exploitative child labor, and racial discrimination. These pervasive societal failings create environments of negativity and constraint that fundamentally alter developmental trajectories and life outcomes for affected individuals.
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This artistic work employs darkness as a visual metaphor to represent the weight of these negative social forces. The photographic series presents young female subjects whose features are obscured or enveloped in shadow, symbolizing the overwhelming nature of societal prejudices that can overshadow individual identity and potential. Through digital manipulation techniques, original color photographs undergo post-processing transformation to achieve this distinctive aesthetic effect.
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The faceless quality of these portraits serves a deliberate representational purpose, embodying the countless victims of gender-based discrimination whose individual stories remain unacknowledged within broader social discourse. The intentionally uncomfortable visual presentation functions as both documentation and protest, compelling viewers to confront the disturbing nature of these social issues rather than maintaining comfortable distance from their reality.
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The project's primary objective centers on generating awareness and fostering critical dialogue regarding gender-based discrimination and violence. By creating imagery that disrupts conventional viewing experiences, this work challenges audiences to move beyond surface-level engagement with the photographs toward deeper consideration of the underlying social conditions they represent. The participants in this project, including family members who served as models, provided informed consent regarding the artistic approach and its intended social commentary.
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The links of international interviews and features on this project:
04: China