American Beauty
The documentary photography project explores the concept of beauty and identity of teenage girls in the important transitional phase from childhood to adulthood in Southeast Ohio. The region is known for its high rate of poverty, drug abuse and health related social issues. The project questions how social structures and environment affect feminine identity formation.
Emine Ziyatdinova was born in Uzbekistan, where her family was deported from Crimea in 1944 by the Stalin regime. Growing up as a part of the Crimean Tatar community in post-Soviet Ukraine, she received a firsthand understanding of the various human rights issues that arose among ethnic minorities and the collapse of the economic and political system in her own country. The desire to advocate for people who are often unable to voice their concerns brought her to the career paths of sociology and documentary photography.
She recently graduated from Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication with a MA degree in photojournalism. Her work was supported by a Fulbright Scholarship, Ohio University, Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Fellowship. Her most recent project about Brighton Beach was published by the New York Times, CNN photo blog, Daily Mail.
