Girls Who Rock [Rf Photo of the Day]

All photos © Jessica Deeks

In honor of International Women’s Day today, March 8, we are featuring a personal series by photographer Jessica Deeks that was created to celebrate, as Deeks says, “the badass teen participants of Ottawa Rock Camp for Girls,” a music-oriented organization that fosters a sense of empowerment, acceptance and community for teenage girls.

Having been acquainted with several of the camp’s participants, Deeks got the idea to do this photo series after looking through the group’s Facebook page. “I immediately pictured this black-and-white series of the girls, and I’d been really wanting to shoot some personal work that I was excited about,” says the Ottawa-based commercial and editorial photographer.

After getting “a very enthusiastic green light” from the camp, Deeks set up a makeshift studio onsite. “It was a pretty large room with great, high ceilings, plus a gritty look,” she says. She used a Profoto Deep Umbrella as her main light source and a Photek Softlighter firing through a Lastolite scrim for fill. Musical instruments and amps were placed as props, and Deeks collaborated with each girl to, “keep it loose and real, and make portraits that offer a unique look that represents them.”

(Captured using a Nikon D800 and the 24-70mm lens.)

Check out some of the individual portraits from this session:

Check out more Photos of the Day, and email [email protected] for submissions.