IT’S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE A GIRL
Featuring EMILY MCGRAIL & zoe trotman, photography by BECCA MIDDLETON. with hair & makeup by remia edwards, styling by izzie baker and photography assistant natalie argent.
wool knits, sportswear and satin pillows. the team behind january’s editorial bring together a mix of elements, questioning our expectations and assumptions around being a woman.
photographer becca middleton explains the idea behind each look in her interview for the feature.
INTERVIEW DATE: 25th january 2025
TYG: HI BECCA. Where did your journey as a photographer begin?
I always find this such a difficult question to answer as I never know where to pinpoint where my photography journey started! I guess I always go back to when I was around 12/13 years old, and I was lucky enough that my parents gifted me my first digital camera. But even before that, I have seen old family photos of me at an even younger age where you can see me holding one of my parents’ disposable cameras. I think growing up in a family where both my parents and grandparents would always be taking lots of photographs on cameras perhaps is what led me down the photography path? Who knows! I just know it is something I have always wanted to do and last year was when I decided to really put the effort into working towards becoming a freelance photographer.
TYG: What were your influences?
BECCA: I take inspiration from photographers such as Steven Meisel who I think is one of the biggest names in the fashion photography world, his work is timeless and just always looks incredible. I also love the work of the late Corrine Day, the way she would find the raw beauty and emotion when she photographed women I find really inspiring. I believe she worked mostly with film which is one of the reasons why I have felt encouraged to go down that route of photography too. Lastly a more recent photographer who I take a lot of inspiration from is Holly McCandless-Desmond, particularly how she incorporates a lot of colorama and textures into her studio work. I just love that 90’s editorial vibe, similar to Holly, which I think is why I find herself and both Day and Meisel to be influences within my work.
TYG: What do you think of the fashion and photography scene in Manchester?
BECCA: I think fashion photography is definitely making its way into Manchester, it is a growing scene but I still feel like it is a little way behind cities such as London. I hope and do believe more brands will start to see and use the amazing creatives in Manchester, as well as the rest of the North of England. I think Manchester is an incredible place fashion wise, you can see that just by walking through somewhere like the Northern Quarter that fashion and style is taken seriously but people are still authentic to themselves. Hopefully having had such a big event such as the Chanel Metiers D’Art show will encourage other fashion brands to come to the North!
TYG: How do you plan a shoot? Do you have a certain process?
BECCA: Very good question! Honestly, I think it varies every time. Sometimes I will have seen something that has sparked a creative idea or perhaps a stylist or model will approach me with an idea they have and we go from there. From that point I will start to create a mood board on Pinterest and continue to build on it also utilising other platforms such as Arena, Instagram and books and magazines I have around the house. I’ll also write down any thoughts / concepts that come into my brain that relate to the original idea and kind of just let my creativity flow. I try not to force myself to stick with the original plan if new ideas and themes arise from building on that. I hope that makes sense? It is a bit of a tricky one to answer!
TYG: Tell us a bit about the idea behind the featured editorial? How did it come about?
BECCA: So when I first started to plan this editorial all I knew was that I wanted to do something more ‘high fashion’ and saved a few images on Pinterest that I felt had the art direction I wanted to create. I then approached Izzie, who styled the entire editorial, with my idea and she came back to me with some brands that she wanted to use for inspiration for the looks. Once Izzie started building a mood board with the clothing pieces she wanted to use / was inspired by, my head just had this sort of lightbulb moment and thought about the speech the character ‘Gloria’ gives in the Barbie movie about how it is ‘Literally Impossible to be a Women’. This made me think about all these different expectations that are put on women but also all the do’s and don’ts around those same expectations. All these assumptions we as women are supposed to live up to almost feels like a game which I related to the sports style look we did, to portray this idea of being a girl is like being an athlete. You have so many expectations and things you have to do right in order to fit into what society wants from you as a woman. The second look we did was inspired by the brand Sandy Liang, where we wanted to create this very overtly feminine look in order to try to portray this androcentric idea that women are emotional, fragile and need to be taken care of. The third look used pieces from Damson Madder. When I saw that Izzie wanted to style the model with this gorgeous headscarf, to me that created a concept of covering up our ears to ignore all these ridiculous expectations that are put on us as women. We just want to thrive and grow (hence the flowers) on our own accord in whatever ways we please. The final look was inspired by the brand Miu Miu, which I visualised as a kind of contradiction of female sexualisation. Pairing the shortest shorts with a pair of black stilettos and then throwing on this sort of ‘granddad’ style cardigan I think toys with that male gaze of a woman wearing shorts and heels. Not only that, but women will also just wear the clothes they want how they want without this male idealisation.
TYG: How did you select the right team?
BECCA: Most of the team were girls that I have been lucky enough to have worked with before, so I knew that they were going to do the best job! Emily and Zoe are friends which I thought would be great for the shoot, I think it is nice when you can see a genuine female friendship translate onto camera, it just made everything feel more authentic because that friendship is real. Remia is a brilliant HMUA, as soon as I asked if she wanted to join us on the shoot, she sent over mood boards for the hair and make up for each look and she got my vision perfectly without me even having to say anything. She did a beautiful job on both the girls! Natalie, I had such a good vibe from when we spoke over Instagram, I could see that she had worked with film before, which I wanted to shoot a lot of for this editorial and had done a lot of video work so I knew she would be great for helping with filming / photographing BTS and helping me with lighting setups!
TYG: What was it like working with the team?
BECCA: Honestly it was brilliant. All the girls went above and beyond to make this shoot turn out the way it did! It was a very relaxed environment; everyone knew what they were doing and wanted to make sure everything was perfect. I think it is so great when you work with a team like that, especially when it is a test shoot. It really is a pleasure to work with people who are truly passionate about their job. I am very grateful to all of them for being a part of this shoot!
TYG: Do you have a favourite look/looks from the shoot?
BECCA: Ah honestly I love love love them all!! It is so hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to I think it would be the sports style look. I love the sort of 80's/90’s vibes the looks have, I said to Emily when she put the red set on it looked like she was going to record one of those home workout videos you would get in those eras! But I do genuinely love all the looks, Izzie did a fantastic job with the styling and I know she will be my go to stylist for my future projects!
TYG: Any concepts you'd like to shoot in future? And anyone you'd like to work with?
BECCA: I definitely want to keep doing work surrounding high fashion editorials, I love being able to try and tell a story through fashion. I actually studied Sociology at uni so exploring sociological concepts and themes is a way I believe of telling a story, which is something I want to be able to translate into my photography. There are so many amazing creatives in Manchester that I would love to work with, I think it is a wonderful community which I would find anyone a pleasure to work alongside! My goal ultimately is to work with fashion brands on editorial campaigns and to see my work published in print!
