Articles
Photos and text by Magida El-Kassis
I never thought about pairing up these images because they seemed so different to me. But when Tony Martins mentioned it and I tried it out I think they do work and play with the idea of juxtaposition.
The photos of the Girls is an ongoing series of beautiful women in natural settings. The portraits of the Girls range from fall 2010 to 2011 and all were shot in our city of Ottawa; at various parks, beaches, and anywhere that really just caught my eye. I love to capture emotion relating to its environment and a lot of these places had this dream-like state.
The Cowboys were shot in July 2011 in a small town about two-and-a-half hours west from here called Warkworth, where a traveling rodeo was happening that weekend. This was an idea I had from personally living in a small farming town outside of Ottawa. I just thought it would be neat to see if cowboys actually exist and how could I capture them with my camera to prove it.
It's funny, the images may seem quite different, but the people in them really are not. It took time and preparation for my crew and I to prepare outfits and do makeup for the girls. With the cowboys, I asked them for a minute of their time, yet spent ten minutes because they would all tell me “Wait, I need a second to tuck in my shirt, straighten up my hankerchief, put on my chaps, get my hat,” etc. It was quite funny that these manly cowboys needed time like the girls to make themselves look good for the camera.
I have these ideas in my head of what girls do or are supposed to do compared to men. And if you look at my work as a whole, you can see that: the Girls portraits are quite planned out, and, I would like to think, show the beauty in structure (referring to a well-composed image and to the girls as a human being), and my photographs of men have very little planning.
I show up to places with the idea to take photos of people with character and they always turn out to be of men who are working hard to feed their families. From a construction worker, to boxers, or cowboys, they are stereotypes of what a man is.
I love photographing people and just showing whoever looks at my images these beautiful people I get to spend a few moments with.
