Project: To the unpopular girls
Iben Gad

2021

“A reaction. That’s probably what we were looking for. Depending on your reaction, we indirectly evaluated whether it was worth continuing or not. When you responded like you did, we evaluated that you were an easy victim.”

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Through conversations with the bullies of my early teenage years, I’m trying to get a better understanding of a time period of my life. The project is driven by my curiosity to get to know what drove my bullies and how they reflect on that time period, and I’m seeking answers to the questions I’ve been asking myself throughout the years.
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‘To the unpopular girls’ (2021) is a personal project about identity that explores social dynamics in my childhood. For this project I asked eight of my bullies if they wanted to meet me for a conversation and for a photo session too. The project takes form as a book and is built of interviews, portraits and archive material such as screenshots, photographs and paintings. Today the bullies are not involved in my life but I’m still sometimes nervous that they will start commenting on my photos or show up when I have to talk in groups. I spend a lot of time wondering who they are and what they come from. And do they remember me?
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As a documentary photographer I’m interested in social dynamics and power structures in society and everyday life. I’m often pointing my attention towards eyes, hands and silent people, and both as a photographer and a person I find it interesting to visit places I’ve been before to see how things and our perceptions changes during time.