I photograph people with non-western features, and pay homage to our profiles and the history in our faces
“So when are you getting your nose job?” was a question 11-year-old me would often hear at my Iranian family gatherings in London. I had started saving my pocket money for the procedure when I was about seven. I would spend my evenings after school pressing down hard on the hump on my nose until the skin went red. I would push the tip up and flare my nostrils the way the YouTube video on how to make your nose smaller taught me. I would sleep with tape holding the tip of my nose up, praying for changes in the morning.
It is common for people with Iranian heritage to have noses that are slightly bigger relative to the rest of their features, with a pronounced bridge and a downward droop. Different to the more commonly idealised smaller, straight or sloped and upturned western nose. With continuous exposure to western beauty standards through the media and celebrities, surgical alterations to the nose became a widespread and longstanding trend in Iranian society. Post-revolution, it became a sign of status and a way for women to align themselves with their admiration for western society and its apparent progressiveness. With time, men got in on the trend too. It has become a rite of passage, where parents will typically even “gift” the procedure to their children.
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