All photos by Colby Katz courtesy Foley Gallery, NYC

While many children spend their Saturdays and Sundays indulging freely in games of tag and make believe, a few are on the road, marched and marching tall into a cutthroat industry of adorable. For the last five years, photographer Colby Katz has been documenting the behind the scenes, and the scenes of child beauty pageants. Her long focus on this project comes as Katz herself was entered into pageants as a young girl.

Beauty Pageants permits us an insider’s view, inside hotel rooms, elevators and hallways where teeny-tot contestants are being fussed and fawned over, preened and perfected, hair-sprayed and spray-tanned by a swarm of proud, ambitious mothers.

Colby Katz’s Beauty Pageants project will be exhibited concurrently from May 28 to July 31 with Sarah Wilson’s Blind Prom project at Foley Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, NYC.

Tags: Beauty Pageants, Colby Katz, Foley Gallery

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 12:00 pm ET by Darren Ching and is filed under Documentary, Fine Art, Photo Galleries, Portraiture.