UNDOING
Undoing is a study in transformation and truth. Each subject moves through three versions of themselves: the constructed, the unraveling, and the real, moving from the fully stylized realm of fashion into the rawness of reality. The work examines what remains when beauty’s architecture is dismantled; how color, expression, and form linger even after the performance fades. In peeling back the layers, the series suggests that authenticity isn’t the absence of artifice, but what survives beneath it.
In an image culture defined by perfection, Undoing asks what’s left when the performance of beauty ends. The fashion photograph has long celebrated transformation, yet often at the cost of individuality, the body becomes a canvas for someone else’s vision. This series traces the return from that loss: the quiet act of coming back into one’s own body, one’s own gaze. At a moment when self-presentation feels more curated than ever, Undoing reflects a collective desire to see, and to be seen, without pretense. By showing both the artifice and the aftermath, Undoing invites us to care not only about how beauty is built, but how selfhood endures within and beyond it.
Against a soft pink backdrop, Lauren Robertson, 18, steps into bold red layers, offering a glimpse of confidence she’s still learning to claim. “I’m usually pretty shy,” she says, “but wearing something this bold… it makes me feel like maybe I can be this girl in real life sometimes.” As we come to a close, she wipes the makeup from her eye, easing out of the performance and back into herself. Later, resting in the quiet courtyard of the Chapel of the Cross on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus, she feels grounded again; still becoming, but at ease in the uncertainty.
Wrapped in the polished language of fashion, Uredo Agada, 23, meets the camera with calm certainty, green tones marking the beginning of a transformation she controls. “Modeling lets me choose how the world sees me,” she says, “and that power feels beautiful.” As the structure loosens, movement takes over, and the studio becomes a space where she releases perfection and reconnects with her own rhythm. By the final frame, resting in the grass, the performance has fallen away, leaving only her presence and joy, what remains when freedom is allowed to lead.
Set against Carolina blue, Annabelle Rhea, 22, stands in an avant-garde silhouette that reflects both the sharp elegance she grew up with in Paris and the space she is learning to claim at UNC. As the performance softens, she loosens her hair, easing into a version of herself shaped by a new environment; curious, open, and steadily more confident. Lounging in Kenan Stadium in a canary dress, she rests into the scale of her surroundings, no longer overwhelmed by them. “It hasn’t been easy,” she says, “but I’m starting to feel like I belong here.”
PROCESS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Undoing was developed as an exploration of fashion as performance and what persists once that performance is released. I directed each shoot to move deliberately from constructed image to lived presence, shaping styling, color, location, and pacing to allow space for unraveling rather than resolution. Grounded in both editorial and documentary practices, the project treats beauty as something built and equally as something that endures beyond its architecture.
This work was made possible through trust and collaboration. Special thanks to makeup artists Soraya Lewis and Karli Kennington for their precision and care. Thanks to Sophia Graci and Eva Katz for their assistance during the shoots. Thanks to Uniquities Chapel Hill, and especially Tiffany Cole, for generously lending the garments that helped bring this vision to life. Finally, deep thanks to Lauren, Uredo, and Annabelle for their openness, vulnerability, and presence throughout the process.
Creative Direction, Photography, Styling: Sophia Katz
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C., U.S.