What started as a project for a diploma, became more of a personal photography series to celebrate natural beauty against the predominant beauty standards in the industry. Discover what is behind Larysa Arkhypenko’s project “Authenticity – is the new beauty!”.
From lip fillers to buccal fat removal, trends and unrealistic standards continue to dominate the beauty industry. This came to light for Larysa as she started her career as a photographer working in beauty and portrait shoots, and continued when she moved on to fashion shoots.
She photographed a lot of faces and realized that many young girls wanted to change themselves, especially their faces. Certainly, this has become – worryingly – more and more popular.
In her award-winning photography series, “Authenticity – is the new beauty!”, Larysa decided to showcase real beauty, how beautiful one can be even without any changes in their body. To her, this is more beautiful than looking like everyone else.Â
Why does it happen that now everyone wants to change the individuality that they have? Why do we always try to see the untouched nature, but we interfere so much with our nature at the same time? Why are we ready to be clones of each other and lose our individuality?Â
Larysa Arkhypenko
Authenticity – is the new beauty!
At first, she started this project as part of her studies in Portrait Photography with Sergei Sarakhanov. Then, inevitably, it became more and more of a personal photography series with great importance to her: celebrating natural beauty and embrace self-love.
This doesn’t come as surprise, considering Larysa has a daughter herself. “I would like my daughter and all girls and ladies to love themselves. Care about natural beauty, care about their individuality and realize that it is much better than looking like each other.”
With this project, Larysa aims to change people’s minds about beauty and the standards imposed by society, brands, and marketing campaigns. Therefore, these photographs feature things made from nature itself only. From the clothes to the decorations, “everything is natural!”
Finally, her photography project secured her a place as a winner of the International Photography Awards 2022 in the category of Beauty/Advertising. “Winning this award means that I am not alone in this question and we have to change this situation together.”
“I wanted to say that our individuality is our true wealth. Beauty is inside. No need to change it. Just care and love. “
Larysa Arkhypenko
About Larysa Arkhypenko
Larysa Arkhypenko is a Ukrainian professional photographer with over 8 years of experience. Her photography career kickstarted after her grandad’s passing, following his footsteps with his camera.
She now works in the field of Fashion & Beauty and Conceptual & Advertising photography, and is currently based in Manchester, UK.
To check out more of her work, visit her Cherrydeck profile.
Did you like to read about Larysa Arkhypenko’s photography project? Make sure to check out more featured projects from our talented photographer community on the Cherrydeck Blog.
