Valerie Phillips, a renowned photographer and leading figure in girly photography, presents her latest work, a scrapbook-like collection that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the early 2000s. This book contains a collage of previously unpublished photographs, contact sheets, minilab prints, copies, and clippings from the production of her now hard-to-find, classic photobook featuring three girls—Monica, Lacey, and Courtney—published in the early 2000s. From a single room in a New York apartment to an endless road trip across the American Midwest, the "beautiful weirdness" discovered along the way is expressed through her unique aesthetic, resulting in vivid portraits of adolescence, travel, freedom, and the brilliance of life. No need for adorned beauty. No need for a sanitized ideal of womanhood. Valerie continues to photograph only the real lives of the girls who live there and the brilliance of their everyday lives, driven by her instincts. What emerges is an emotional, slightly gritty, imperfect, raw beauty. One critic describes the world captured through her lens: "Valerie delves deep into the raw, true core of her subjects, who boldly challenge the established frameworks of society in their appearance, behavior, and purpose. By immersing herself in the lives of young women and documenting their passions, dreams, and aspirations, she breaks free from all stereotypes and conventions." Candy Cat Head is a book that encapsulates Valerie's long-standing themes: the insatiable curiosity of girlhood, the tactile feel of physical encounters that remain even in the digital age, and the intersection of analog collage and digital photography. This book will give us an opportunity to re-examine our connections with others, our memories, and "how we document our daily lives."
