Kate Warren
by Kate Warren from Los Angeles, CA
Women have been told their body hair is unhygienic since razor companies started placing ads in 1950’s fashion magazines to sell more razors. Over decades women internalized that messaging, growing to believe female body hair to be "gross" and investing money, time, and pain in its removal. Hair became political, one more way for men to shame women about their natural bodies and monetize controlling them. Contemporary feminism calls us to train a critical eye on beauty norms to better understand how they came to be, what they signify, and how they are oriented in the history of women’s oppression. This work is my personal reflection on these themes.
Quarantined alone for months and free of societal pressure, I stopped shaving and embraced my body hair. It was uncomfortable, but as time went by I became shyly ebullient; the hair became a carnal celebration of natural beauty. It was sensual. I started to love the way my underarm hair looked peeking out of a silk tank, the way my legs felt when a warm breeze tickled them on the beach. My partner celebrated my choices, made me feel beautiful even when I felt insecure. Over months of feeling out of control in quarantine, my body was something I could control. I came to love all my hair, shame-free.
SELF-PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CONFINEMENT
Curated by Svetlana Bachevanova
A collection of self-portraits made by photojournalists from five continents during the unprecedent lockdown due to the corona virus pandemic.
Photographers are people on the road, living to document the lives of others.
Constrained by the lockdown, many of them had their first experience of being still long enough to begin seeing and understanding small details about who they are, their lifestyles and values, that were overshadowed while they were busy. These self-portraits express their experience.
This is a unique collection of self-portraits from some of the best lenses in photojournalism at an historic moment.
Photographers in Confinement is a project in process and I welcome additional submissions from photojournalists at svetlana@fotoevidence.com
I am looking for potential exhibition partners in the USA and abroad.
Svetlana Bachevanova is a founder and publisher of FotoEvidence, long time photojournalist and curator.
