Beauty Pageants
Beauty pageants originated as a marketing tool in 1921 by a New Jersey hotel owner who wanted tourists visiting Atlantic City to remain in town longer. They are now one of the fastest growing businesses in America grossing over 5 billion dollars a year. For this project, I decided to focus on girls ages 12 months to 5 years of age. Kids too young to be able to comprehend the event in which their parents are preparing them for. My project is spilt in to two sections. One is about the ritual of getting ready. A behind the scenes look at the girls picking out their clothes, getting dressed, and having their hair and make-up done. It's at these moments when the girls are at their most natural and act their age. It's also the moments when they seem detached, sad, old, apathetic, and tired of the ritual. The second half of my project is of the girls posed inside hotel conference rooms. Here, after hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars have been spent having them look and act mature, after all the prodding, they often fail to follow through. Mom's stand beside their little girls telling them to "show their dimples" and "do their pretty feet". Their dimples show but the smiles are forced and poses are awkward and usually not what the parent hopes. When they are doing the thing they been prepared to do, which is after all to look and act like a miniature adult, they fail terribly and end up in the end looking like they should, kids.
My motivation was to take an un-judgmental look at the world of child beauty pageants and try to understand the cultural sentiment concerning them. The main topics of negativity surrounding them include the idea of child labor and children as sex objects.The little girls are not the ones taking pride in the way they look. They are too young to understand. It's the parent(s) and at times make-up artists who pull and tease their hair into complicated hair-dos, adding wiglets and extensions when they feel the hair is not full enough. Drawing lip liner across their lips, applying self tanner and dressing them, that feel the pride. The parents are living vicariously through their children. When and if they leave as a winner, they are usually proud not of their children, but for the prizes they bring home. And the attention that they will get as the mother of a beauty pageant winner.
About Colby Katz
Colby Katz attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating in 1998 with a B.F.A. in Photography, she began working for The Associated Press and The New York Times Newspaper. In 2001 she returned to her home state of Florida to be able to spend more time working on personal projects about the South. The work from her projects in Florida was received very well. Earning her a spot in the Powerhouse published book, 25 Under 25 Up-and-Coming American Photographers in 2003, the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists in 2004, participation in the 2004 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass, and inclusion in 2005 edition of PDN's 30 Choice of Emerging Photographers
Colby continues to work on her personal projects in Florida while also working as a staff photographer for the New Times Newspaper and doing freelance work for such magazines as Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, Details, Vice, and Tokion. She is represented by World Picture Network agency.