Kristyn Jones, Mighty Girls (People and Portrait 2017)

How is a girl supposed to be? In those delicate years traversing the chasm between “big girl” and “young woman”, a girl must struggle to find herself. Whether she looks to television, glossy magazines, music videos or social media, the world is awash with mixed messages: she is told “Be this way!” and just as soon as she bends herself to fit a particular mould, she’s told “No, be this way!” Mighty, then, is the girl who forges her own path; who considers everything available to her and has the courage to be, simply, herself. In this series of portraits of my daughter and her close friends, I wanted to capture the defiance and determination of these young girls, but also their vivaciousness and humour. It is there in unexpected touches, like a hunting rifle and dead rabbit or a retro skateboard, as well as in quotidian details, like a pair of gumboots that are a touch too big, evoking the young womanhood these girls teeter on the precipice of.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.