Kritzia Portugal
Susannah Benjamin, “Danaïd”
2013, Monochrome
I spent a lot of time looking through photos but none of them spoke to me like this one. As I browsed from book to book, images, and prints I finally found this gem. In this interesting photo by the talented Susannah Benjamin, we see a girl swallowing her own hair. I selected this image because I feel it speaks of a girl’s most fragile time in their life, the teenage-young adult years.
In this photo you see a young woman swallowing her own hair, a part of herself. Many girls, from young age, are expected to act and be a certain way. This young girl is portrayed naked, with skinny, tired eyes, she is worn out and the only thing that is left of her is her braid. Her own personal choice on how to wear her hair, however, for some reason she is eating it. To me, her eating her hair, symbolizes her finally being stripped of everything she is, she no longer has light in her eyes, or clothes, or anything to fend for herself.
She is looking to the side as she feels embarrassed. She feels defeated and knows what society is expecting her to do. Once she is done eating her hair she will just be another body, another restless soul wandering through their life looking for acceptance and “inspiring” other to “eat their braid” and let go of who they are as it is no longer useful in a constructed society.
