Think of fashion photographers and a few names will spring to mind: Rankin, Mario Testino, Helmut Newton; Annie Leibovitz is possibly the only household name female fashion photographer. Yet Emily Stein and Celia Willis from London-based organisation We Are Photogirls, which runs fashion photography courses for 13–18-year-old girls, are hoping to change that. I chatted to Celia. . .
Katie: How did you get started? Where did you come up with the idea?
Celia: It started in 2005. Emily is a photographer while I do more of the art direction, set-building side. We were both freelancing and doing more commercial stuff but it’s really nice to do some shoots off your own back. Then we began to think about how much fun it is when you are younger, doing shoots and things not necessarily to make money but just doing it because you love it. And then we thought how much teenagers would love it.
So we came up with some packages of workshops and took them to youth clubs. We found that there were a lot of boys’ activities—a lot of sport and music mixing, without a particular equivalent for girls, not that they’re not necessarily interested in football or producing music, but it was a specific activity for them. And Photogirls grew from there: galleries, parties, workshops . . .
At first we began it on the side to other freelance work, but a few years ago we decided to really push it.
K: What sort of girls come along? And why only girls?
C: We seem to work between extremes – a lot of privileged, well-educated kids but also kids who might not be in full-time education. It suits both. Often they are girls who have not had a very good experience of education, who are unsure about what job prospects there are. We also do it in single-sex groups – it’s a lot to do with empowering young women to support each other, and building a sisterly atmosphere.
K: Describe some of the things you do
C: Well, during the October half-term course coming up, we will chuck them in at the deep end. We’ll take a shoot from a mag, explain all the different job roles involved. We get them into big teams 
and give them a theme, this time it’s harajuku girls. They do it all themselves: storyboarding, building sets, make-up, outfits, and shooting it all. We’ll also have a making day, with a catwalk show followed by a shoot and they’ll judge each other’s team efforts. Or we’ll ask them to reinterpret a famous fashion image.
K: Is fashion photography male dominated?
C: It is if you look at numbers. But in fashion there are a lot of big names that are women, you’re just more likely to know who Mario Testino is than Sarah Moon for example. We have a little bit of discussion about that. Women photographers are often not household names, but they are out there.
K: Have there been any really heart-warming success stories?
C: Yeah. One of our girls ran a shoot at Inspiring Youth magazine, and also in North London a youth worker said to us “You won’t be able to get them involved, they’ll just get bored and walk off…” but one girl used her work to make a portfolio and said she wanted to be a photographer now and they’re helping her to get into college.
If you’re not academic, you have a concept of education that you’ve got to be good at reading and writing. But with styling, teenagers already dress themselves, they like styling themselves – it’s an exciting way to think about jobs and careers. And with the photography, they can use expensive equipment they wouldn’t be able to get hold of otherwise. You start feeling there are more options for you.
K: So what’s next for Photogirls?
C: We really love doing workshops and parties, next we hope to hold an exhibition of their work, and a tour, to go to different groups, we would have to be funded for that though. We try and set up professional opportunities for the girls.
K: How much does it cost?
C: We try to keep it 50/50—half are free for girls, and we get funding for those. For private parties we charge, a three-day one is £150. We always suggest the free courses to girls who contact us.
For more info on Photogirls, go here.
Emily and Celia