The First Beauty Pageant (Edt of 50)

Irina Popova
The First Beauty Pageant (Edt of 50)

Photographs: Irina Popova

Text: Zoya Glazacheva

Publisher: Self published

112 pages

Year: 2017

Comments: Softcover, 18,5 x 14 cm. Limited edition of 50 copies, numbered.

These photos were discovered in the beginning of 2016 During the reconstruction in the office of a local newspaper in a city of Tver, former Kalinin, some 200 km from Moscow A dusty old box had an insctiption: “ the archive of the regional beauty pageant’89” As a matter of fact it was an archive of brothel The editor of the newspaper organized “A model agency” where he created portfolios for young girls, and guided them as a pimp into prostitution. there were more than 300 girls in this portfolio There was a criminal case agains the editor but the police could never find this archive…. I added a new level to the series - by cutting the female figures or details out of the picture, I made it seem transparent, almost non-existent. The female body, an object of attention, desire, and a main subject of a picture, disappears, but leaves a silhouette, where it’s still clear: there was a woman. What happened to her? This helps to investigate the surrounding landscape in all the details