They grow up so fast…

If you make a series of horrifying photos of little girls dressed like Vegas cocktail waitresses, I will apparently always click through. First it was Susan Anderson’s High Glitz, a series of child beauty pageant contestants.

And then the last issue of the NY Times Magazine had a series of photos by Kenneth O Halloran of contestants at the World Irish Dancing Championships.

All I can think of when I see those spray tans is Homer’s makeup gun.

• Kenneth O Halloran
• photography
• Susan Anderson

The face of child beauty pageants

High Glitz is Susan Anderson’s portrait series depicting “the extravagant world of child beauty pageants”.

Hours of preparation are spent on each child’s appearance, and her camera records it all in graphic detail. Children’s pageants are a fascinating subculture, but more than anything they represent a strange microcosm of America itself. Our own values of beauty, success and glamour reflected in the dreams of thousands of young girls…

Sweet Jesus, I’m gonna have some nightmares tonight. Can’t sleep, clown’ll eat me, can’t sleep, clown’ll eat me… (via conscientious)

Update: Colby Katz has done a similar project. (thx, chris)

• photography
• Susan Anderson