I wanted to make a photo series that communicates a fresh perspective on beauty by photographing mothers after their young girls had done their makeup. I chose girls from a younger age range to come into the studio with their mothers and gave them total freedom to choose how they wanted to paint their mothers' faces.
One thing I noticed about the girls that came in is that they were the happiest with the messiest elements of their full-face makeup work. It made me question the beauty definition and how subjective it really is. That is why this project is geared towards any person that feels the need to create their identity based on imposed ideas. I want this to affect people that feel pressured to present themselves in a certain way, in particular women who are conditioned at a young age to spend their lives endlessly trying to meet impossibly idealized beauty standards.
I also hope this portrait photography project will appeal to people that are interested in social inquiry and how it can influence our assertion of what is beautiful and what isn’t. The references in the title #Daughterdoesmymakeup allude to hashtag culture, which indirectly critiques the idealized online portraiture currently in global circulation. I want this to inspire people to re-question their own definition of beauty in the same way it did for me and to re-consider what we are really raising our younger generations to believe in.
More info: heisephoto.com | Facebook
