Being Inbetween is now available as a beautiful book, designed by Joe Gilmore, with a foreword by Zelda Cheatle, essay by Anne McNeill,  and  published by Bluecoat Press


To order please follow the link 

https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/being-inbetween/


or purchase it directly from me using the contact form.


Being Inbetween is a continually evolving series of photographic portraits of girls aged between ten and twelve, exploring the complex transition between childhood and young adulthood. The work arises from my own memories of being this age and the desire to give voice and faces to the young women who inevitably must pass through these mysterious hinterlands on their journey towards adulthood.


Girls between ten and twelve are often marketed to as ‘tweens’ and seen as a group. They become invisible as individuals. At this age, girls are bombarded with advertising and marketing, and it is vital that this marketing doesn't come to define who they are, or who they are to become. I have heard some parents describing the age group as “ungainly”, “awkward”, “growing into their faces” and into the young women they are yet to become. They are at a vulnerable stage and often hidden within the cocoon of familial protection until they emerge as young women.


When I was about eleven I recall spending a silly amount of hours in my room deciding whether to put on a pair of shorts because it was a hot day; that feeling of self-consciousness that suddenly descended from no-where. I remember thinking deeply about the world I lived in. These hopes and fears shaped the adult I was to become. At that age I had left young childhood behind and I was on the cusp of adolescence, where little comments and criticisms had a huge impact on my malleable brain. This is my starting point to the series – an exploration, a way of giving a voice to the girl I was and the girls who are; a way to explore the hidden complexity, duality and contradictions that mark this phase of life.


The majority of girls in this series were previously unknown to me, and come from diverse range of backgrounds. I invite them to come to the sitting in the outfit of their choice. It is important that they are comfortable and very much themselves during the process. After the photograph is taken, I interview them with the same set of questions, and record the answers. These are the Inbetween girls; amazing, fearless, fearful, brave, funny, and smart individuals, getting ready to take on the world.


Carolyn Mendelsohn 



Carolyn's work has been published in the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Bored Panda, La Monde, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Yorkshire Post, Click Magazine, The British Journal of Photography, Professional Photography, and many other national and international magazines, in print and on line.
Her personal work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Awards include;
2020 Winner (Portrait Series) Julia Margaret Cameron Award.
2020 Winner - Open Walls Arles - 3 single images. British Journal of Photography.
2019 Winner Portrait of Britain
2017 Winner - Portrait of Britain, BJP, Nikon, JC Decaux
2017 finalist RPS International Photography Exhibition 160
2016 Winner (Gold Medal) RPS International Print Exhibition 159
2013 WInner Professional Photography Magazine - Lifestyle

Exhibitions
2020 
Open Walls Arles
Re-Framing Our Identities. 100 Heroines selection. Bologna  
2019
RPS 100 Heroines - Unframing Our Identities - Chelsea, Blackpool
Being Inbetween - Sugar Store Gallery, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. 
2018
RPS 160 tour
Solo exhibition
Being Inbetween, Crossley Gallery, Halifax

2017
Portrait of Britain
RPS 160
Photoblock, The Old Tuman Brewery, London

RPS159
Retina Photography Festival - Edinburgh
Belfast International Photography Festival. The Civic, Barnsley,
Museum of Somerset, 
University of Brighton,
Royal Albert Hall,
Photoblock, The Old Truman Brewery, London.
2015 Portrait Salon, London and Tokyo

Solo exhibitions include.
2021 Being Inbetween, Impressions Gallery, Bradford 
2019 Being Inbetween, Sugar Store Gallery, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal
2018 Being Inbetween, Crossley Gallery, Halifax
2016 Being Inbetween,
Gallery 2, Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire
Art Link Gallery, Princes Avenue Hull
2015 Being Inbetween
Gallery Butterfly Rooms, Saltaire 

Channel 5 - Live News 

Interview to coincide with opening of Exhibition at Impressions Gallery.

info
×

Lucy aged 11.


"My hobbies are drama, singing, dancing, hockey, netball and football. My favourite hobby is drama. I love how whatever is going on in your life you can forget about it, and become someone else.

I really dislike it when people don't accept people for who they are. I hate the fact that people are having to spend the night on the streets.

Since I was young I have loved comedy or action movies and my ambition is to get a role in one of them."
info
×
Using Format