Stunning photos show the dark side of young ambition
Isabel Magowan
Photographer Isabel Magowan has been shooting photos of young people for years, but it never occurred to her that she'd have a photo series on her hands.
Someone asked her if she had a name for her photos, and she settled on "Cygnets," meaning "young swans."
Like a young swan, her subjects are beautiful and looking to the future. There's also an undercurrent of complicated emotions running beneath. They're all trying to be somebody, but there's something else going on alongside their ambition.
Magowan's selected photos delve into those emotions and try to represent them as photographs.
Young people are taught ideas about beauty and success. But they also have their own ideas about beauty and success that can conflict with what they're taught, Magowan said.
Isabel MagowanThey're all young people trying to be someone. But they're also trying to be someone they're not.
Isabel Magowan“Just because a space suggests something, and just because a person looks a certain way, doesn’t mean that we’re naturally fulfilled."
Isabel MagowanSee the rest of the story at Business Insider