To Be a Bride of Valor

To Be a Bride of Valor explores the image of the bride through self-portraiture. I reconstruct the bridal moment in meticulous detail, not only to fulfill a personal longing and confront private pain, but also to dismantle the conventional image of the bride and reimagine it on my own terms. Rooted in personal fantasies, religious tradition, and Hollywood clichés, the work began as a private ritual and evolved into an examination of the wedding industry, its consumerism, spectacle, and excess.

This reflection deepened during a visit to Las Vegas, where I photographed commercial wedding chapels, surreal spaces that distill theatricality and commodification. Here, love is flattened into a product, and the bride becomes both consumer and object.

The project also engages with religious tradition and modesty, testing the boundaries between exposure and concealment, reverence and rebellion. Preparations for each image are ritualistic: sourcing garments and objects, often from thrift stores, transforming my room into a set. Alone, I inhabit the role: dressing, styling, veiling, In solitude.

The book is inspired by a women’s magazine or bridal manual, subverting glossy ideals to offer an alternative vision of womanhood and marriage.