Sometimes we do a full series of something cool. Here's why...
If you look closely, you'll see that this girl is wearing makeup on only half her face. I created six images of girls with makeup on only half their face. I call this series, "With or Without." I am extremely proud of it and I thought I'd share why series' are so unique in photography.
“I call this series, "With or Without."
I chose to take portraits of confident women. I wanted to show that women wear makeup or don’t wear makeup as they chose. It’s not about others or society, it’s about ourselves, and we are confident, happy, beautiful people with or without it on. Specifically, I photographed six different women with makeup on one half of their face and no makeup on the other half of their face. It’s all in the same location to avoid having the background be distracting. I loved doing this project because it allowed me to show women as they are in all their glory. I feel like sometimes we see women without makeup on and they always seem unhappy and then they suddenly have makeup on and are smiling. I wanted to change the stigma that makeup is what makes a woman beautiful, but they can still love to wear it and be beautiful in it as well.
Why a Series?
Photographers chose to do series for many reasons but mainly for two as far as I've seen.
One) They've been invited to show their work in a gallery and want it all to be cohesive.
This is of course not the only way to show work in a gallery. Many artist chose to show work of all kinds in order to show their favorites or just recent work. However, some pick to do a full series that showcases some or all of their skills in the best way.
Two) For fun.
Simply put, photographers, like all other artists, should be doing their craft becasue they love it. They love to work with their camera, their models, their editing software, etc. So a series is a fun way to show off some of the more creative stuff that you do, especially if you're more of a commercial photographer.
I chose to do this series because quite frankly, I am still in college and I had to. So, I guess you could say it was for reason one. BUT I also made it because of reason two. My photography teacher said, "Never produce a body of work that you don't care enough about to pick up after it's been graded." In all honesty, there are kids in that class that are just going through the motions because they're too stressed to care anymore. A real photographer will always produce a body of work that they care about and that they honeslty had fun doing.
