All the Girls by Janaiah Lloyd27 Images
Whether it’s a graffiti-covered cubicle or a gleaming, tiled ensuite, bathrooms are profoundly intimate spaces. “In the bathroom, there are friendships being made, broken, or repaired. There are beauty rituals, there is bonding, there is crying, there are drugs, there is fellowship, there is judgment, self-love, and self-loathing,” says New York-based photographer Janaiah Lloyd. It is this intimacy that is the focus of their latest photo series, All the Girls.
Taking its name from the chanting line in N.E.R.D.’s “Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)”the series captures ritualistic moments of girlhood through images shot in bathrooms across New York City. At its core, All the Girls spotlights the experiences of women of colour within these spaces. “Oftentimes the experiences of women of colour can be different,” Lloyd explains. “Specifically with our hair care and beauty rituals. Not being the beauty standard can take a toll on how we get ready. There’s this extra attention toward looking ‘put together.’”
This absence of representation in visual media became glaringly obvious while Lloyd was conceptualising the series. “When I started collecting references, I realised there was little to no representation of women of colour in these spaces,” they reflect. This realisation became a driving force for the project, using the bathroom as a space to spotlight the often-overlooked intimate experiences of women of colour.
What does the title ‘All the Girls’ mean to you?
Janaiah Lloyd: All the Girls is a look inside the sacred spaces of women, in this case primarily the bathroom – the one place that often feels the safest to us. The title is an ode to the song “Everybody Nose” by NERD. That line often posed the question to me: ‘What the fuck is going on in the bathroom?’
Where did the idea for the project start from?
Janaiah Lloyd: From pure curiosity. I don’t spend much time in the bathroom ever, so oftentimes if there’s a queue, I’m quick to get irritated and go into the men’s bathroom. One time, I audibly said ‘What the hell is going on in there?’ From that moment on, I started to observe, and when I did that, I found that girls are just existing in their own ways in there.
Do you think beauty rituals can be intimate?
Janaiah Lloyd: The entire process of getting ready for the day is an intimate experience, and even continuing that process throughout the day. I feel it’s often a form of meditation and self-care. During my shooting process, when I would capture someone in this state, it was often met with a sense of calmness. Some people were just quiet, some listened to music, some were chatting with their partners, and others smoked. I got lucky for a few of my shoots that the girls were actually going somewhere, so capturing that in real time was beautiful to witness.
Why did you choose to focus on women of colour for this project?
Janaiah Lloyd: Though all women have similar experiences within the bathroom, I feel oftentimes the experiences of women of colour can be different – specifically with our hair care and beauty rituals. Not being the beauty standard, I feel, can take a toll on how we get ready. I feel like there is extra attention towards looking “put together”. I wanted to highlight the beauty that lies within. While representation is at an all-time high, I still struggled to find reference images of women of colour for this shoot.
What do you want people to feel or take away from this shoot?
Janaiah Lloyd: I would like women to feel included and seen through this project, and I would like those who don’t use the women’s bathroom to understand how much of a sacred space it is and why. I hope they’ll offer women more compassion and care for the way that they choose to take care of themselves. Beauty rituals may take hours in my experience, but it makes a difference to how women feel and view themselves, and I think that’s important.
What aspects of girlhood did you want to explore in this project?
Janaiah Lloyd: Everything about this project, in my opinion, is girlhood. The specific aspects of this include community, self-care, friendship, relationships, and vulnerability. I feel there is a strong sense of all those things within these photos.
I really hope that this resonates with women all over and makes them feel seen and centred, especially women of colour. I also want to thank every woman who has ever made bathrooms a safe space for themselves or others. It truly is a beautiful sight to see so much community and care happening in such a vulnerable space.
