THE GIRL PROJECT - A Photographic Exploration of Adolescent Girlhood Today

Wed Nov 4, 2009 12:27pm EST
 
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NEW YORK, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Photographer Kate Engelbrecht brings the
world of American teenage girls into focus with The Girl Project, a
provocative series of photographs and interviews investigating the complex
lives of the modern teenager.  

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091104/NY05294 )

The project was born of her own curiosity about American girlhood and the
glamorization of female adolescence in the mass media and on television dramas
such as Gossip Girl, The Hills, and NYC Prep. "I was seeing an entire
generation of American girls, soon to be American women, being universally
misrepresented," said Engelbrecht.  Determined to understand the experience of
average teenage girls and to correct public misconceptions, Engelbrecht began
reaching out to girls between the ages of 13 and 18 across the United States
and sending Kodak disposable cameras by mail for them to photo document their
everyday lives. 

The Girl Project features young women from different cross-sections of
society. Some live in urban cities while others are from rural hometowns; they
vary in ethnicity, race, religion and age, yet the collective pressures of
modern society echo through their self-portraits. Girls responded to
Engelbrecht's questionnaire with dreams of becoming artists, photojournalists,
and psychologists while others hope to be lawyers, travelers, and fashion
designers, but they share a desire to make a difference in the world and be
influential in the lives of future generations of women. 

With The Girl Project, Engelbrecht has delivered a profound commentary on the
vicissitudes of growing up today -- revealing the girls' common struggles and
celebrating their original triumphs while they cope with new levels of
responsibility and expectations of maturity. Garnering astounding support and
immediate success, Engelbrecht now receives approximately 400 camera requests
each month and will continue to promote the project until 5,000 cameras are
distributed. The Girl Project was exhibited at SCOPE Miami in 2008.

Kate Engelbrecht has spent the last seven years working primarily with
families and children and her work has been published in PDN and Time Out New
York. Outside of photography she has worked on several freelance research and
writing assignments for the Oxygen Network and in her free time loves to
travel, read and cook. 

SOURCE  Kate Engelbrecht

Rubenstein Associates:  Barbara Wagner, bwagner@rubenstein.com,
+1-212-843-8035, or Nancy Raia, nraia@rubenstein.com, +1-212-843-9331, or
Molly Dince, mdince@rubenstein.com, +1-212-843-9353

 

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