Made over a period of 6 years, Being Inbetween is a series of powerful photographic portraits of girls aged between ten and twelve, exploring the complex transition between childhood and young adulthood.

Driven by personal experience, award-winning photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn has worked collaboratively with 90 girls who are in the midst of navigating this complex, and potentially defining, period in their lives. Too often the target of relentless marketing campaigns and victims of social media pressures, girls at this age are often placed into an amorphous group described as 'tweens'. Through her photography and accompanying interviews, Mendelsohn allows each individual an opportunity to reclaim their identity, encouraging a dialogue on ambitions and aspirations, hopes and fears.

The girls are both creative participants and collaborators. Invited by Mendelsohn to select their own clothing and stance for the portrait, each girl's features and gestures are recorded against the same grey hand-painted backdrop. In these three-quarter length portraits, each girl looks directly into the camera. This careful and measured photographic approach bestows the girls with authority, granting them a certain power held within their gaze.

Featuring girls from a spectrum of cultural and ethnic backgrounds; disabled girls as well as able-bodied; and girls from a range of socio- economic circumstances, Being Inbetween offers an inclusive insight into this generation of girls. A personal narrative accompanies each photograph, with Mendelsohn asking the same set of questions to each of her collaborators: What is your full name? How old are you?, followed by more in-depth and emotionally- charged questions: What do you love? What is your ambition? What do you really dislike? What are your hopes for the future?

Taken as a whole, the portraits offer a highly personal insight into the dreams, desires, hopes and fears of this group of unique young women, with each girl the author of her own look and artist of her own image.

Book Carolyn Mendelsohn - Being Inbetween
Sun 12 May, 4.00pm

Carolyn Mendelsohn is an Artist and Photographer . Her practice is rooted in telling stories and amplifying the voices of those who are not always heard. Her passion is to be able to connect and communicate with people of all ages and backgrounds, to create photographic work that is strong, compelling and based on their lives. She is recognised for her portraits, including her portrait series and book, Being Inbetween, and is the founder of Through Our Lens, a workshop and mentoring programme that enables people to tell their stories through the medium of photography.

The Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival is generously supported by Arts Council England (ACE), Royal Tunbridge Wells Together, Maxipay Accounting Services, and Berry and Lamberts Solicitors.