Photographers who have inspired this project:

There are several photographers i have looked at and been inspired by during the run up to this project. One being Cindy Sherman and her photography work as she takes on the roles of other women in her self portraiture.

Sherman prefers her images to not be referred to as 'self portraits' as she says that it is not her in the images, but the person she is portraying. She uses her photography to address various issues in the modern world, one of the most prominent being 'the role of a woman'. She uses her work to raise challenging and powerful questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art.

On her website it explains:

' Her photographs show her dressed up in wigs, hats, dresses, clothes unlike her own, playing the roles of characters. While many may mistake these photographs for self-portraits, these photographs only play with elements of self-portraiture and are really something quite different. In each of these photographs, Sherman plays a type -- not an actual person, but a self-fabricated fictional one. There is the archetypal housewife, the prostitute, the woman in distress, the woman in tears, the dancer, the actress, and the malleable, chameleon-like Sherman plays all of these characters.'

Another photographer who has inspired me for this project is Renieke Dijkstra and her Teens project. Between 1992 and 1996 Dijkstra photographed a series of full length portraits of teenagers on various beaches. She wanted to explore the themes of national identity and class in these portraits and stood her subjects before sea, sand and sky to add a mythical element to the work. She captures the vulnerable and volatile nature of the teenagers.

Dijkstra's earlier work like Teens has been opposed by some of her newer work including 'The Buzz Club' it has been described as 'moving from an exploration of teenage anxieties to an exploitation of young, not fully aware individuals.' Her images show how the subjects are feeling 'some of them look back at you angst that has sent many a teen to their rooms. Others reveal fear, loneliness and sometimes a surprising and indefinable sort of spectral  transcendence.

The contemporary art magazine Frieze described Dijkstra's complex psychologies included in her images as 'Self-concious is an implicitly contradictory description. It can mean to be positively self aware and also the opposite, to be painfully unsure of oneself'.

David Hamilton is another photographer who inspired me greatly for this project. He is a british photographer best known for his images of young women. Hamilton's images are very raw and natural but have come under much scrutiny as to whether they are art or pornography. He explores girls budding into womanhood but also touches upon girls at the younger end of the age spectrum.