Venus Girl of the Month: Photographer Hoda Amel Abdalla

Her pictures prove beauty is more than skin deep.

By Siera Cerny
Published: August 31st, 2010 | 4:10pm

Her recent project, Bald Beauty Collection, is what caught our eye, while the rest of her work kept us coming back for more. Below, LA-based photographer Hoda Amel Abdalla shares her philosophy on artwork, beauty, and what it means to be a woman who has more than her looks to share with the world.

VZ: Your work includes conceptual images, digital prints, and fashion photos. What kind of photography do you prefer?

HAA: I find music and fashion completely inspiring. Art is about stimulating your senses. As a photographer, I primarily work with what you see, I like to round it out by fulfilling two of the other four senses. I started my career by photographing bands for various publications. In addition to that, I view fashion as touchable, wearable art. I spend a lot of my time watching runway shows online and going to see them in person when given the opportunity.

Right now, I work in editorial, fashion, beauty, and related product photography and have been published internationally. These genres provide me with enough creative freedom to conceptualize the final product, while still incorporating commercial elements into the photograph.

My experience has allowed be to develop a divide between photography production and post-production. I am currently working as a freelance photographer and retoucher in Los Angeles. My artistic style is bold, clean, and modern with an attitude. A predominate feature of my work is a feminist theme of empowerment.

VZ: What was your reasoning for moving from Chicago to LA?

HAA: I lived in Chicago for three years, the Northshore suburbs before that, and attended Columbia College Chicago, and then transferred into Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. To be honest, I didn’t realize how committed I was until I was halfway across America with only a suitcase, records, and photo equipment in my car. After almost a year of living in Santa Barbara, I decided it was best for me to live in Los Angeles, closer to work. I’ve realized I need to live in an urban environment. I don’t sleep that often, so I like having places that are open 24 hours at my fingertips.

VZ: Tell us about the Bald Beauty Collection and how it came to fruition.

HAA: In fashion and beauty photography, a model’s hair is most often key to producing a visually striking image. The models in the Bald Beauty Collection are not women who have lost their hair due to illness/medical treatment. The “bald-effect” was created on each model using prosthetics by the talented Luna Bella Make-Up Art Team. Breaking the norms of physical beauty, the photographs display models who have made the choice not to show an asset of their beauty. I wanted to illustrate that not all women view their hair as essential to their looks. Going bald is not something that has to be experienced to be accepted. We can create gorgeous and visually appealing portraits, whether the subjects have hair or not.

Using women who have lost their hair would have given the collection a more documentary feel. The Bald Beauty Collection is an effort to show that women who have not experienced the process of hair loss admire the strength and beauty of women who have.

VZ: What inspired you to do the Bald Beauty Project?

The Bald Beauty Collection stimulates my desire to show that the beauty of women lay within their attitude. I feel that society has a negative approach to how they view women who have lost their hair due to these circumstances by looking at the process as “damaging” or “an unfortunate side effect”.

There are wonderful non-profit organizations out there helping women cover-up these symptoms and side effects, but I feel that we should be taking a different approach. We should be encouraging women to feel confident in themselves by guiding them in overcoming the norms by accepting of their changing physical state.

The war with self-esteem is often the lowest point in a women’s life and should not be a concern to women courageously battling illness and its treatment. I believe there is nothing more beautiful than a woman who can keep a positive perception of beauty evolving with her physical state, regardless of its condition. Hair has always been considered too much an asset to the fashion and beauty industries. I created this series to empower women—to let them step forward and unveil the beauty behind the hair.