Batool Al Daawi: 'Beauty Hurts'

24-year-old photographer Batool Al Daawi is carving out a big name for herself, not just as one of Egypt's leading fashion photographers, but also in the field of conceptual photography. Her latest photography series 'Beauty Hurts' began in October 2013, with the aim to publish the series in a book in the future.

The shoots all revolve around the age old adage that 'beauty is pain,' and women will go to incredible lengths to alter their looks based on perpetuated myths around beauty. The first shoot, featuring model Heba El Dessouky, blurs the lines between self-inflicted lacerations and lipstick, with the blots of red stunningly contrasted against her pale complexion.

"Women sacrifice a lot for the sake of beauty," Al Daawi tells us. "'Beauty Hurts' is about how beauty is interpreted nowadays, and how hard women are trying to look how they think they should look, with the over-use of make up, cosmetics and plastic surgery, and how hard they try, although it hurts our skin. People don't know what beauty is anymore."

For someone who works in the fashion industry, it's an ironic ethos but it's something Al Daawi tries to tackle head on. "I try as much as I can to make my subjects look natural, especially in my retouching, unless it's a conceptual shoot." 

"I don't see beauty as a pretty face," Al Daawi says of her work. "Actually I'm not a fan of pretty faces, and my models complain a lot about that. They think they'll walk out of my studio looking like a Barbie doll, but then they got used to it and they love it. I see beauty in strange things, and sometimes people call these strange things ugly, but I don't see it that way."

"It's a fake industry, but for me, beauty & fashion is art. That's the difference. Once you start treating fashion as trends, designer names and brands, then you know nothing about fashion. I'm in it for the art."