The Girl Project (presentation overview)

8/14/2019 The Girl Project (presentation overview)

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THE GIRL PROJECT



POSSIBLE SUBTITLES

-Through Their Eyes

-Girlhood Revealed

-Inside the World of Teenage Girls

-Inside Their World

-A Teenage Perspective

-From Their Perspective

-Photographs by American Teenage Girls



PROPOSAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW…………………………………..p. 4

BOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS……………p.15

MARKETING…………………………………p.15

AUDIENCE…………………………………...p.15

FUTURE IDEAS……………………………..p.16

COMPETITIVE TITLES……………………..p.17

POSSIBLE ENDORSMENTS………………p.19

SAMPLE IMAGES…………………………...p.20



OVERVIEW

We live in a culture that is saturated with media and imagery depicting the lives

of teenage girls. It is hard to go a week without hearing about a new reality showdetailing their dramatic day-to-day lives or seeing the most recent teen-celebrityscandal plastered across newspapers, magazines and websites. The tumultuousyears in a young woman’s life that were once narrated in the private pages of apersonal diary are now a pastime for readers and viewers of popular culture.

The Girl Project was born from my own curiosity about teenage girl life. A fewyears ago it occurred to me that I knew a lot about today’s teenage girls, despiteknowing none personally and not having been one myself for many years. For some reason I felt confident that I understood who these girls were and I wasamazed by how different it seemed from my own adolescent years. Girlhood hadbecome far more sensational than my recollection. Teen girls today seemed likeyounger, hipper versions of the women I watched on Melrose Place in the 90’s.So shallow, soulless, mean and - most surprising of all – completely fearless.

How could it have changed so much? Maybe I didn’t know teenage girls after all.Maybe I just thought I did. Perhaps the information I was receiving about themwas more fiction than reality. Instead of understanding teenage girlhood maybe Iwas just consuming it. Maybe we all were… and are. I decided the only way toreally explore these questions was to work in partnership with girls. In order tounderstand what female adolescence means in today’s world I wanted to askthem to communicate their own understanding and view of themselves.



cameras get returned to me by US mail, undeveloped, along with a release formsigned by her guardian. Working with my staff of teenage interns I selectimages which then get scanned. All of the 4x6 proofs and negatives get codedand filed as does a brief questionnaire that some of the girls send back. The

questionnaire is not required for participation. I created it as a means of gainingsupplementary information about the girls’ lives – intended to be used as a crossreference during the editing process.

From a completed questionnaire (see pg. 28)

“It was much harder than expected to put my life into single frame photos.

But I guess that’s the beauty of the project – it’s real and simple butcomplex.” -Kate, age 17, Austin,Texas

Diversity is a large component of the project and therefore finding girls living inurban, suburban and rural areas has been a focus of mine from the beginning.By including a diverse range of participants the project accesses a diverse rangeof ideas. This diversity is central to the editing process as it furthers the

relevance of themes, patterns and anomalies.

The overwhelming majority of girls are not photographers in a cultivated sense.Given the technology they have grown up with however, most have been takingpictures for years. Asking the girls to communicate photographically rather thanin writing was very intentional. Because so much of the media representation onadolescence is visual, in one format or another, it made sense to me that girls



sexuality and musing and we portray them in ways that fulfill these things. Likegenerations of girls before them, today’s girls feel misunderstood. Uniquehowever, for today’s teenage girls, is the overwhelming abundance of misrepresentation. There is an entire generation of American girls, soon to beAmerican women, who are being misrepresented everywhere. Portrayed and

misrepresented to themselves as well as to the society they live in. My hope isthat by sharing The Girl Project, a new perspective will emerge and truth will berevealed.

Miriam Forman-Brunell, author of Girlhood in America, writes that “Although girlsfrom Pocahontas to punk rockers have been integral to American culture, mosthave been overlooked, their lives undervalued. Perceived as insipid andinsignificant, and essentialized as passive and pretty”. Forman-Brunell wrote thisin the context of history, though the same could be written in an evaluation of contemporary culture.

We live in a world where grown women read Twilight and grown men watchGossip Girl . Where educated grown-ups follow updates on Miley Cyrus and theLohan sisters with as much dedication as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Teenage girls aren’t just being represented in Seventeen magazine for their own

entertainment. Today they are being represented in every medium and outletavailable for society’s entertainment.

According to Time Magazine only 16% of Gossip Girl viewers are teenage girls.Recently New York Magazine writers Jessica Pressler and Chris Rovzar wrotethat the primary reason that Gossip Girl is genius is because it is “like TheHills—but with less agonizing dialogue and more human deviance”. On a daily



The Girl Project book is about sharing a newperspective. A photographic perspective on femaleadolescence by teenage girls. The Girl Project is female

adolescence as only young females understand andexperience it.



Somewhere, between reality shows like Real World andThe Hills, we’ve forgotten what “real” is.



We’ve forgotten that teenage girls are real people.



With real hopes.



Real fears.

Real issues



We forget just how innocent 15 is.

And we forget how complex 15 is



It is clear what a profound curiosity our society has withteenage girl life. Equally profound is how little we reallyseem to understand.

The Girl Project is a photography book that exploresteenage girlhood from inside the social group. Throughphotographs taken by girls the viewer gains access to a

sub-culture depicted everywhere, though rarely withaccuracy or sincerity.

BOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Foreword by well known photographer (e.g. Mary Ellen Mark, LaurenGreenfield) or well respected celebrity (e.g. Susan Sarandon, Oprah) or iconic feminist (e.g. Naomi Wolf)

• Introductory images (one per page)• Introduction by author – short essay on project background and motivation• Essay by current teen celebrity (e.g. Kristin Stewart, Selena Gomez)



like Urban Outfitters and Virgin Megastores should be pursued, as well asthe online entities of these brands. Local specialty retailers like Kitson(LA) and Ooga Booga (LA), Kisan (NYC).

• Sub-culture groups

Because The Girl Project provides a counter balance to commonperception and mainstream thinking about teen life, marketing to sub-cultures like skateboarders, snowboarders and gamers is an opportunity.Retailers like “Burton Snowboards” should be pursued as well as themultitude of online communities and vendors like “Cool Girl Decks” andhttp://www.chicksdiggames.com/ .

• Photography book collectors, art enthusiasts, photographers and

artistsBecause The Girl Project is a high-end photography book with topicalcontent, contemporary art museum book/gift shops are logical. For instance The New Museum (NYC), The Walker (Mpls.), Hammer Museum(LA) and photo specific institutions like the International Center of Photography (NYC) and MoCP (Chicago). Additionally onlinephotography book retailers like photoeye.com, artbook.com andKowasa.com, and local specialty bookstores like Dashwood Books (NYC)powerHouse Arena (Brooklyn), Golden Age (Chicago), Panorama (Tokyo),and Claire de Rouen (London).

• International audienceThe international community maintains a curiosity about American youthand seeks it for trends in fashion, music and art. The Girl Project is as



COMPETITIVE TITLES

Girl Culture, 2002

Girl Culture is a frightening look at girlhood in America – an almost cautionarystory by photographer Lauren Greenfield. It is an eye-opening body of work thatfocuses largely on the shocking side of adolescence and is told exclusivelythrough the lens of an adult. The Girl Project reveals girlhood through the lens of girls and focuses on their self-perceptions, commentary and expression. Further,The Girl Project raises questions about common thought while revealing newideas about this heavily portrayed group. Like Girl Culture, The Girl Project isdocumentary in nature and style but fundamentally different in that the subject

documents herself. Both are documentaries about female adolescence butwhere Girl Culture is representation of girlhood The Girl Project is self-depiction.Further, The Girl Project takes on the voice of the girls behind and in front of thecamera. Rather than examining the group the viewer is invited in.

Post Secret, 2005-Present

Post Secret is a compilation of private expressions, written on postcards and sentanonymously. Like The Girl Project, Post Secret reveals an honesty and

intimacy that speaks to our curiosities about others as well as ourselves. Thegreatest and most obvious difference is that The Girl Project is a photographybook featuring photographs by teenage girls. While it is like Post Secret in thatgirls send their creation to a stranger, they do not remain anonymous.Furthermore girls receive photo credit for their work.



100 Young Americans, 2007 In 100 Yong Americans, photographer Michael Franzini captures a cross sectionof American youth in beautifully posed and propped images. Accompanyingeach photograph is text written by each subject. The Girl Project is similar in thatthe subject comments on her life experience, but different in that it is done

through images she creates herself. Additionally, 100 Young Americans is aboutAmerican youth whereas The Girl Project is about female adolescence.Aesthetically The Girl Project is extremely different. The Girl Project is raw andcandid, shot by young amateur photographers, (not a professional adult) andwithout the use of sophisticated camera and lighting equipment.

America 24/7, 2003 From the creators of A Day in the Life series of photography books, Rick Smolanand David Elliot Cohen collaborate to bring together thousands of images takenby Americans during a one week period of time. In 53 volumes, 25,000photographers of varying skill, document the essence of their life andcommunities. The Girl Project is similar to 24/7 in that it represents multipleviewpoints and backgrounds and spans the country. It also looks at our societyfrom within rather than from the sidelines. The Girl Project is stylistically far lesspolished – representative of the age group it focuses on, thereby capturing the

spirit of the generation. The Girl Project is far more private and personal andreflects the emotion of the photographer and subject. It also focuses on one sub-culture (teenage girls) rather than America as a whole.

American Youth, 2009 American Youth examines the lives of 18-24 year-olds in America. The bookcovers a wide range of sub-cultures including Mormons, debutants, rock fans and



POSSIBLE ENDORSMENTS(celebrity, media, photography, academic)

Kristen Stewart – topical teen celebrityHayden Penettiere – topical teen celebritySelena Gomez – topical teen celebrityDakota Fanning - topical teen celebrityAnnasopia Robb - topical teen celebrityVictoria Justice - topical teen celebrityEmma Roberts – topical teen celebrityVanessa Hudgens – topical teen icon

Robert Pattinson – topical teen celebrity and heartthrobTaylor Swift - topical teen singer songwriter Lil Mama – topical teen hip-hop artistDrew Barrymore – former teen celebrityJody Foster – former celebrity teenBrooke Shields – form teen model and celebrityChloe Sevigny – former teen icon and fashion museReese Witherspoon – former teen celebrity, face of AvonBeyonce Knolls – former teen celebrityNatalie Portman – former teen celebrityJamie Lee Curtis – celebrity activistSusan Sarandon – celebrity activistRosaria Dawson – celebrity activistAshley Judd – celebrity activist



SAMPLE IMAGES



SAMPLE IMAGES (Cont’d)



SAMPLE QUESTIONAIRES



SAMPLE QUESTIONAIRES (Cont’d)



AUTHOR BIO

Kate Engelbrecht grew up in Northern Minnesota and attended TheCollege of Saint Catherine, a small women’s college where she received aB.A. in Sociology. A week after graduation Kate bought a one-way ticketto New York City and shortly after landed in Brooklyn in search of a job.She found it at a boutique advertising agency, Fallon New York, a satelliteoffice for the highly respected Fallon Worldwide. It was at Fallon, whileworking as an Assistant Strategic Planner, that Kate realized two things.

She did not want a career in advertising and she desperately wanted towork as a photographer. In 2001 she started Kate EngelbrechtPhotography and quickly earned a reputation as one of New York City’s upand coming wedding photographers, known for her personal and intimateapproach. Soon after Kate began developing her version of the familyportrait - a still photo essay about a family, revealing a “day in the life”perspective. Her work as been featured in PDN, Time Out New York Kids

and The Knot.

Photographing weddings and families has given Kate unique access intothe private lives of others. Invited into the intimate experiences of adultsand children, she has been able to reconnect with her early curiositiesabout society and culture and grow her skills as a quiet observer of



PRESS

THE GIRL PROJECTby Kate Engelbrec



New York-based photographer Kate Engelbrecht is spear-heading a grassroots photography initiative called The Girl

Project that arms teenage girls with a disposable camera and

asks them: What does your world look like?The project is simple enough, Engelbrecht sends one Kodak

Max HQ 35mm single-use camera to any girl in America, who

is between the ages of 13 to 17 and willing to participate in theproject. She asks the girls to take pictures of things that are

meaningful in their lives, and then has them send the camerasback to her. The goal is to collect photos from 5,000 girls of

diverse social and ethnic backgrounds and then organize the

work into a book and a traveling exhibition.It is a fresh look at what the teenage culture is up to—through

the eyes of the girls themselves instead of through popular teen

magazines or TV shows like, The Hills or Gossip Girl.“As adults we create an image of who teenage girls are, and

we sell that back to them—telling them who they are,” Engel-

brecht says, “None of it is coming from the girls themselves—as a result the truth gets lost.”

From the photographs she has received so far, Engelbrecht is

seeing a much different side of girlhood—not without its empha-sis on boys and mirrors, but also with a more endearing side.

“These girls are so much more innocent than we realize,” shesays. “Their photos are of themselves and friends, but they also

photograph owers and text. They like to shoot words or post-

ers, something already written because it’s meaningful to them.”Engelbrecht thinks that, while there is a place for some of

the Lindsay Lohan-type material, much of the overstated infor-

mation from the media on girl culture can be harmful—both to

girls and to society.

“To not understand adolescence is a huge mistake,” shesays. “It affects our perception on them as well as their own

opinions on themselves. The girls feel that they either have to

live up to these images or combat them.”It hasn’t been easy to get the project moving, only 100 cam-

eras have been returned from the 400 cameras Engelbrechtsent out. She has found that partnerships with adults, teachers,

nonprot organizations and schools yield much higher camera

return rates than do her solo efforts. Money is tight andEngelbrecht has been paying for the disposable cameras out

of pocket, however, Kodak is now allowing her to buy the

cameras at a heavy discount, which helps offset the price.Despite these hurdles, the project has been getting positive

feedback. It won a coveted spot at the SCOPE Miami Art Fair

this December. Engelbrecht has also received enthusiasticsupport for the project from Daniel Power, founder and CEO of

powerHouse Books.“Tweens and teens are largely a demographic that’s been

catered to, but rarely heard from. I think this project admirably

attempts to change this,” Power says, adding that he couldenvision powerHouse publishing the book in the future.

Engelbrecht hopes that major corporate sponsorship willlend the project legs and inuence, in order to get the message

out—as loud as possible.

“Short-term, this project is so girls can learn to communicate

and use media as a form of expression. Long term, it’s so our culture can take a look at this really important subculture in a

new way,” she says.

The Girl ProjecT leTs Teens reveal Their World by Kelly Ebbels

agt 14, 2008

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/content_display/pdnedu/student-news-and-views/e3i1fefd617b0921810c09622870323fe4d

Ground Glass



An interview went up today on the Girl Project blog, discussing my work. It was an honor to share my personal motivation

their audience. If you have a moment, check out the site. I am very excited to be a part of the Girl Project, a very positive anonline initiative that works to empower and encourage teenage girls to express themselves using a camera. Even if you are

teenage girl, their work is interesting and inspiring. Photography as a medium can have many functions, and it makes an exc

vehicle for young people to nd their voice.

So many exciting and great things are happening for my work right now, more to come soon… But thank you all for your sand for staying with me through this process. As for WIP, it’s success continues, we have lots of really fabulous things planne

the months ahead.

WHaT Is THE GIRL PROJECT?

The Girl Project explores the lives of American teenage girls by putting them behind the camera to document themselves.

disposable cameras, girls 13-18 photograph their lives as only they know and understand it.

There are two ways to share your photos. First, you have to become a participant in The Girl Project. E-mail me and I’ll se

you a disposable camera. Once you return it to me, all the photos on the camera will be considered for a blog posting (and TGirl Project website and future book). Second, (only after returning your TGP camera) you can submit new work that you wo

like to share. E-mail me a low resolution version of your photo (72dpi, 5×7in) and it will be considered for the blog. If it is sele

I’ll post it and write about it… and ask you to write about too.

http://caraphillips.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/the-girl-project/

The Girl ProjecT by Cara Phillips

j 25, 2008

Ground Glassthoughts on photography



TEEn GIRLs DOCumEnT THEmsELvEs!

To encourage creativity, self awareness, and condence in

adolescent girls, freelance photographer and writer Kate Trenne

Engelbrecht initiated “The Girl Project,” where girls receive a

free disposable camera, shoot photos that appeal to them, andsend them back for Web posting. Trenne Engelbrecht, sociology

SP ‘92, sees this as an opportunity for the girls to gain recogni-

tion for their artistic work while offering others the chance to

study their prospectives and concerns.Thousands of girls across cultural, economic, and geographic

segments of the United States have asked for and received their

cameras in the mail and the invitation from Kate to document

themselves and their views of the world around them.

The value of their photography extends beyond the images’

qualities as art or documentation. “I think The Girl Project is

without question a sociological project as much as a photo-graphic project,” Kate states. “The cameras are a way to

gather information, and the photos are a means to understand

and communicate themes derived from the images...I thinka lot of photography and our culture’s interest in it is linked

to sociology.”

Kate, however, warns the young participants that though

The Girl Project would like to post and exhibit all their images,that is not be feasible. “Only the most unique and creativewill be selected. Should one or more of your photographs be

chosen for the book and/or gallery show, you will be notied.

GOOD LUCK!”

KaTe Trenne enGelbrechT sP ‘98 sTarTs The Girl ProjecTAs the images are received, Kate selects the photos to

on the web site and collect for the book and traveling exh

“As more and more pictures come in, a story unfolds. I neuse that story as a guide for how I edit and remain true to

story. It is also about selecting images that compell the vi

ers to think as well move and inspire them to do somethiCertainly themes of similarity and diversity are of interest

too and will be reected in the selections.”

Together, the web site, book, and exhibit will offer a co

plex, provocative, artistic, self-initiated and directed portrteenage American girls. Kate aims to collect images fromleast 5,000 participants. She will later donate the negativ

a library or institution to preserve and make them availab

additional study.

http://minerva.stkate.edu/alumna.nsf/pages/girlproject



THE GIRL PROJECT IDEaLs

“The Girl Project stems from two ideals,” explains Engel-

brecht. “First that teenage girlhood is an important and meaning-ful subject for photography. Teenage girls are an ever-changing

social group whose inuences cross pop culture, communica-

tion, economy, and the future. Further, their voices are often

muted or altered for our consumption. In order to really seeteenage girls, in order to create a true and honest portrait, we

need teenage girls to be the originators of the content. Photog-raphy offers girls a creative approach to think about themselves

and their environment, and to communicate it visually.”Aspects of this project ow from Engelbrecht’s experiences at

St. Catherine’s. “I denitely feel as though my time at St. Kate’s

instilled a strong desire to seek and explore important ideasand questions. At St. Kate’s we were encouraged to search for

meaning and understanding in life, not just academics. In that

way, I think I am and always will be asking questions and look-ing to nd answers.”

Kate urges each girl to use the camera’s 36 photos in her

own way. “Shot close-up or far away. Use the lm to photograph1 or 36 subjects. Take pictures of people, things, or landscapes.

Take self portraits. Use the camera to express your feelings an

dthoughts -- happy, sad, angry, or indifferent. Be thoughtful or careless, formal or informal, traditional or experimental, literal or

symbolic.”

KaTE, nOT YOuR ORDInaRY

FREELanCE PHOTOGRaPHER

Once a pipe dream, The Girl Project is now a full-time job for

founder Engelbrecht. Originally from Northern Minnesota, Katelived for the ten years since graduation in New York City, where

she rst worked as an associate strategist for Fallon New York

(an advertising agency). After realizing she wanted to be a pho-tographer, she began shooting images and portraits of families

and children. Her work has been published in PDN and TimeOut New York. Reaching beyond photography, she has also

conducted research and written articles on a freelance basis for Oxygen Network. ‘Right now,” says Kate, “my days are spent

sending out and collecting cameras, editing pictures, and then

the least fun task -- searching for funding.”Kate, herself, did not really start “shooting herself” as a pho-

tographer seriously until after college “I wish I had been inspiredearlier. Obviously I had a camera in high school and college,

but I wasn’t using it to express myself or explore anything. I was just taking snapshots.” Shifting gears into life as a photographer changed not only her professional ambitions but also the ways

she perceived, gathered, and shared information about life.

“Photography is a phenomenal way to express one’s self andcommunicate but also to start looking at things, people, and

environments more closely. In other words, it’s a great training

tool for the eye -- a tool for examining life closely.”Engelbrecht has received a grant from the SCOPE Founda-

tion, which supports emerging artists in key cities around theworld. The Kodak Company has agreed to sell the necessary

5,000 cameras to The Girl Project at a greatly reduced rate,

so the project is well on its way but it needs additional funding

sources. “ My goal is to have all 5,000 cameras out by mid 2009and have a nal edit ready for publishing by the end of the year

(2009). I have met with several interested publishers but haveyet to commit to one at this time. Once the photos are all in,

I’ll have a better sense of the book, its market, the scale of the

distribution.”Kate has two hopes for her fellow alumnae in terms of The

Girl Project: “that readers will pass information along about The

Girl Project to their teenage daughters, nieces, etc. and encour-age them to participate -- and that those who are inspired by

the project will spread the word among their networks of smart,inuential female friends that The Girl Project is looking for cor -

porate and strategic partners to help in the large task of funding

the project.”So if you know some adolescent American girls, send them

to www.thegirlproject.org -- and explore the site yourself to learn

more about these unique beings and the project itself. The blogspot is also very interesting.... http://thegirlproject.blogspot.com.



j 25, 2008

The talented Dina Kantor recently madeus aware of the ongoing The Girl Project --”A

national collection of photographs taken by

teenage girls. The photographs representteenage girlhood and life as seen through the

eyes of young women in America”, states the

project’s website.

Reminiscent of projects such as “Kids With

Camera” and “Through The Eyes of Children- The Rwanda Project”, this project however

gives viewers a unique look at girlhood in Amer-ica today and encourages and empowers girls

to express themselves and take ownership.

The project intrigued us and made us curi-

ous about who is behind the idea. The Girl

Project is spearheaded by New York basedphotographer Kate Engelbrecht, who took the

time to answer a few questions for us:

NP: Tell us a little about yourself.

KE: I am from Minnesota originally. I grew upin Northern MN but have lived in NYC for the

past 10 years. After college I didn’t have aclue what to do with myself. I had majored in

sociology and was not interested in a career

in academia, so I moved to NYC and startedworking in advertising. Shortly after I learned I

didn’t want to work in advertising.

NP: How did you discover photography?

KE: It was at the ad agency I worked for.While I was quickly becoming uninterested in

advertising I was even faster falling in love with

photography. I bought a used Minolta with a50mm lens for $150 and started shooting. It is

still my favorite camera.

NP: How did this project come about?

KE: I had been toying with the idea for some

time - looking for a way to blend two thingsthat interest me (photography and girlhood). At

some point I realized that the opportunity wasbigger than just examining female adoles-

cence through photography... and that it could

also be a way to understand girls in an entirelynew way. I gured why not go to the source

nYmPHOTO i collectie of woe i photogrphy dedicted to cretig coity of d for fele rtit & rt diitri order to p the geder diide tht perde throghot the rt world tody. Or priry cocer i to icree the expo

or & other fele photogrpher d the work they crete. The collectie i fio of idtrie: the choltic, the repree

d the e. Fid ot ore here: WWW.nYmPHOTO.COm

The Girl ProjecT: a conversaTion by Nina Buesing

- why not let the subject speak for herself.

NP: What would you consider to be the ideal

venue to show an exhibit of these images youare collecting and curating?

KE: Great question. And I’m torn between twoanswers. One is institutional, by where my

dream is to see The Girl Project on exhibit at

ICP, Mass MoCA or The Walker. The other isto make it more approachable... more acces-

sible... and get Target to sponsor a traveling

exhibition in their stores.

NP: Thanks so much! We are much lookingforward to seeing how the project progresses.

http://nymphoto.blogspot.com/2008/06/girl-project.html



Yesterday I got an e-mail from Liz Hagen, the owner of

Venetian Red – a fellow artist, writer, blogger and neighbor! Thee-mail told me about the Girl Project, the idea of Kate Engelbre-

cht, a photographer, who is sending disposable cameras to girls

in the US, collecting the photos, and then curating them for anexhibit/installation. Humans have long been fascinated with fe-

male adolescence. The promise and hope behind their eyes…

the purity and romanticism youth represents, the razor thin linebetween immaturity, maturity, innocence and rebellion. (The Girl

Project Statement)In today’s world it not only piques our curiosity—it feeds our

insatiable need for drama. The supposed lives of teenage girls

have become modern entertainment. Our ideas about them growfrom what we read about Lindsay Lohan in The New York Post

or what we saw on last week’s episode of The Hills. We learn

what they like, buy and wear and what they believe, think anddo… and just as quickly as we get our x, we fail to understand

the complexity and truth behind the very group we obsess on.With the hope of reintroducing them to us, The Girl Project

explores the lives of American teenage girls through images

they create themselves. Using the raw, honest qualities of photography, girls reveal their self-perceptions in a daring act of

intimacy- both behind and before the camera.

The Girl ProjecT by Nancy Ewart

jy 15, 2009

http://baartquake.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Girl+Project



For Kate Engelbrecht a fascination and curi-

osity with teenagers today launched a country-wide project that is uniquely original and highly

noteworthy.

Originally a Minnesota girl, Kate moved toNew York City after completing her Sociol-

ogy degree and landed a job at an advertising

agency. She spent three long years working for the company before realizing that was not at all

what she wanted to do with her life. Her secretlove was photography. So, although she had no

idea how to begin or what to do, she bought a

camera, started studying the art of photographyand eventually landed a job as a wedding and

portrait photographer.

As she began to photograph the worldaround her, Kate became fascinated with the

today’s teenagers. “Girlhood seemed to havechanged so much from when I was a teenager and I couldn’t gure out how girls had suddenly

become the crazy, bratty, slutty, mean peopleI kept seeing on TV, in books and magazines,”

Kate tells RelateMag.com. “It also occurred

to me that unlike my generation, todays girlswere being represented everywhere! Female

adolescence had become entertainment…. andI started to wonder how accurate the represen-

tations were.”In order to nd the answers in 2007 Kate

launched the Girl Project. The idea behind thisproject is to give girls the opportunity to photo-

graph their world in its true, raw form. Partici-pants are given a disposable camera and are

asked to take pictures that document their lives.

Once the entire camera is used up it is sent,undeveloped, to Kate.

“The undeveloped part is really important,”Kate says. “This way girls shoot honestly and

instinctively without seeing the outcome. It is

really an unusual experience for a lot of thegirls, who have only ever used digital photog-

raphy and takes a lot of trust and faith on their

part.”Once she receives the camera, Kate devel-

ops the pictures and adds them to the collec-

tion.“Letting girls represent themselves started as

mini-quest just for myself in order to get someanswers. Today it is much bigger than that,”

Kate says. “Now I’m on a mini-mission of sorts.

PhoToGraPhinG Your life in The raW by Katie Hinderer, Web Editor

ap, 2009

I feel really strongly about sharing what I’velearned… and helping girls share their view of

themselves with others.”

No, digital pics aren’t accepted. It’s got to be

a Kodak disposable camera that Kate sendsout to girls interested in participating. The idea

behind the disposable camera is simple, “One,for consistency everyone shoots with the same

Kodak HQ camera. And two, girls submitting

images they’ve never seen provides the projectwith a rare and candid view,” Kate says.

So far about 1,000 girls have participated inthe Girl Project. Kate has plans to send out a

total of 5,000 cameras to girls in every corner

of the country. Anyone can participate and it istotally free. Participants only need to request a

camera.

Eventually, the Girl Project will becomea book and traveling exhibit. It’s too early to

say when the pictures will travel to, but Kate

is dreaming big and hoping for an exhibit thattravels the entire country. The book she envi-

sions as one in which the viewer can just getlost in the pages. Some of the early participants

have been featured on the Girl Project blog.

http://www.relatemag.com/the-girl-project-photographing-your-life-in-the-raw/

“I hope The Girl Project (book) will give

people the opportunity to get lost and becinundated by new images of adolescence

photos taken by girls themselves about th

selves,” Kate says. “It really is a perspectthats missing from our culture.”



Would you like to be part of a really cool photography project that willturn into a book? Here’s the deal: you get a free Kodak disposable

camera and take photos of anything that captures your life and feel-ings. Mail it back to be developed, and your photos will be considered

for The Girl Project”: a book, a traveling exhibition, and web site about

life from a teen’s point of view.

To get a camera, all you need to do is email thegirlproject@gmail.

com with your name, e-mail, mailing address, age, and phone number.Kate, the author who dreamed up this project, will send you a camera

back (she has 2,000 left!). Be creative and have fun. We can’t wait to

see your shots!

GeT a free caMera!sptm, 2009

http://www.seventeen.com/fun-stuff/17-buzz/the-girl-project

The Girl Project (presentation overview)

Documents

Transcript of The Girl Project (presentation overview)