May 17, 2024 |
Girlhood is a weird and wonderful thing. Despite it looking different across generations, the central tenets remain the same. MSN chats turn into TikTok videos and One Direction shrinks down to Harry Styles, but the complexity of coming-of-age retains its universality. Navigating friendships, figuring out sexuality, stressing about your appearance and relationships that only last a week all seem to be consistent themes that rear their heads as girls enter the early stages of their teenage years. It’s confusing, exciting, stressful and joyous all at the same time, neatly rolled into one, Maybelline-doused ball of teenage angst.
This cryptic multiplicity means, as far as subjects go, creating a visual of girlhood is a tricky one to do justice, and only some are up to the challenge. Photographer Eimear Lynch has proven herself to be one of those people. With her series Girls’ Night, the Irish photographer pretty much hits the nail on the head, and her unfiltered photos are now being released within her debut photobook via unconventional publishers, Idea. Documenting the subtle rituals and teetering anticipation of teens across Ireland as they prepare for the discos that most of us are familiar with – think strict boy-girl divide where Smirnoff Ice’s are snuck inside jackets – Lynch captures the sweet spot of adolescence. Brief glimpses of the girls getting ready at vanity desks and huddling in dance halls evoke a fond sense of nostalgia that echoes throughout the pages.
The personal feel of the book is emphasised by the handwritten notes that pepper the pages, mirroring the messy authenticity of a teenage diary. Also accompanying the imagery is a foreword and poem by Irish designer Simone Rocha, who notes the affinity she feels with the pictures, seeing her own experience of growing up in Ireland reflected in the book.
Now available for purchase from Dover Street Market London as well as Idea’s e-commerce website, it might be one of the best photobook debuts of the year, embodying the dichotomy of girlhood’s embodiment of both nostalgia and timelessness. We spoke with Lynch about how her own teenage experience contributed to the formulation of this project, the evolution of girlhood over the years and the significance of beauty rituals in the lives of teenage girls.
1. How would you describe your own teenage experience and what aspects of it do you aim to capture in your photography?
“My teenage experience was fairly up and down. I had really good friends, but we were led astray a lot – we were pretty bold, mainly due to naivety and the desire to appear cool. In this book, I wanted to capture the positives of being a teenager and the excitement of growing up and experiencing some level of freedom that you didn’t have before. I wanted to capture the importance of female friendship and the comfort of navigating the transitional period of being a teenager together.”
2. To what extent was your personal experience growing up the impetus for starting this project?
“I always loved going to teen discos when I was younger. The getting-ready was the best part. I have such fond memories of those times and wanted to relive them through this book. We didn’t have camera phones when I was a teenager, so I don’t have many photos to look back on, which was probably for the best. So, this project was a way for me to relive those times and to capture the positives of growing up.”
3. What were some constants you observed across all the different groups of girls you photographed?
“The style was the same with every group and disco I photographed around Ireland. Every girl wore a bodycon dress, usually from Shein, regardless of class or geography. The girls in one disco I photographed in Northern Ireland wore GAA jerseys and sports shorts, I’m still not sure why.”
4. What elements of girlhood did you spot whilst taking the images for Girls Night that you feel have transversed into your own experience of womanhood as you’ve grown up?
“The ritual of getting ready together is something I still try to do as an adult whenever I can. It’s so fun and relaxing. Working on this book has encouraged me to carve out more time for beauty rituals. I tried minimise my time spent on adhering to beauty standards a few years ago but this project made me realise the enjoyment in the rituals.”
5. How do you perceive the significance of these beauty rituals in the lives of teenage girls, based on your own experiences and observations?
“There is a lot of pressure on girls to be beautiful, and especially with TikTok now there is a lot more pressure to buy new products to adhere to new trends. But I think there are positives to it as well, in that it allows girls to be creative and form friendships.”
6. What are the differences of girlhood from when you were a teen compared to the teens you shot for this project?
“There is added pressure on girls now because they can get information from so many sources. Everyone lives on their phone now and they get a false sense of what the world is like. A lot of people want to be famous because influencers make it look fun and easy. But it’s sad hearing a girl aspire to be an influencer. Being famous for being famous wasn’t a thing when I was a teenager, apart from Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, who I loved, but no one I knew wanted to be them.”
Photography by Eimear Lynch.
