In March 2017, Nailah Fisher was in dire need of an idea for a class photography project when she realized what she really wanted to do was pay homage to Women’s History Month.
As a student at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., Fisher is majoring in advertising communication and minoring in photography. She’s always had a passion for putting together photographic projects that also present a message, like the project she did as a high school senior on the racial profiling of black men. This time she wanted to let women know they do not need makeup or other so-called beauty enhancers to look beautiful.
“I thought to myself that this needs to be something that has a message and that I can really invest myself into,” she said.
“I want this to be a celebration of women and their skin and cultural backgrounds,” she added.
It took over a month of hard work for Fisher to find multiple models and shoot pictures of them in naturalesque settings. The models she chose were from various backgrounds and were required not to wear any makeup during the photo shoots. Her models consisted of friends, dorm suite mates, and fellow St. John’s students. To really bring out their natural beauty, she shot many of the models in parks and other places known for a rich bounty of nature, like the Queens Botanical Garden. Many shots showed models leaning against trees and posing behind flowers.
Fisher used the pictures she took to create her own book, The Value Scale, for her class project. But since then she’s decided to continue contributing to the book with many photos on her own. Her book is a reference to the natural beauty of women of diversity.
To promote her work and spread her message even farther, Fisher now also has pictures of her models on her Instagram page. Each picture is featured with a famous quote. For example, she used a quote for one model by designer Diane Von Furstenberg that reads, “When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.”
Fisher has strong beliefs on beauty and female empowerment. She is not against makeup or other beauty enhancers, but she is against girls and women feeling unattractive without it.
“I think it’s just so powerful to take a beautiful picture knowing you’re not wearing any makeup,” she said.
It’s a message she thinks is important for women, as well as men to learn: “The society that we’re in pushes so many makeup advertisements and body beauty enhancers to look like celebrities like Kim Kardashian or Blac Chyna, but I want women to remember to love the skin you’re in before you do something drastic.”
Fisher herself used to not feel comfortable when she wasn’t wearing makeup. “I felt I needed makeup to feel presentable,” she said, explaining that while in college, she was able to get to really know herself. “One morning, I just thought how ridiculous it is for me to feel like I need to put on makeup to go out.”
Also contributing to her strong feelings about natural beauty was the makeup industry’s advertising aimed helping people get what was described as the “natural look.” To Fisher, this seemed “just ridiculous.”
But Fisher also surrounded herself with friends and acquaintances who embraced their natural look. “These are the people who motivated me to be able to completely go natural,” she said.
Fisher’s work has inspired others, who see her as a role model. “Nailah’s photographs really take the superficial and shallowness out of picture taking that I’ve seen as a trend nowadays,” said model and fellow St. John’s student Kayla Williams. To Williams, the photo Fisher took of her in a natural state, without any makeup on, is both beautiful and “just real.”
Recently, Fisher started a new Instagram page(@nfishphoto) dedicated to presenting her work, and now she’s also trying to build her own website. “I would love to make this project the front page of my website so people can see the type of person I am and the work that I am interested in,” she said.
She added: “I just think it’s extremely important to just love yourself.”
