Natalia Dolan is a Toronto-based photographer who decided to make 2018 a year of change.
“One aspect of my business focuses on commercial portraits of women and I started to notice a lot of female friendships that were in these workplaces that I would photograph and I always felt like it was something that needed to be celebrated and explored,” said Dolan.
Dolan’s New Year’s resolution was to focus on female friendships and The Girl Friends Project was born. It is an ongoing photography series that showcased women of all ages, backgrounds, and stories of friendships.
“I look up to my friend Andrea in a lot of ways,” said Cassandra George, a participant of The Girl Friends Project.
“Our energy sort of feeds off of each other.”
“Cassandra and Andrea are both two young women who work in politics and I felt like they brought an interesting perspective into the series,” said Dolan. “Because females who work in politics right now is a prominent issue that we should be talking about.”
“Cass always brings this lightness and just makes me laugh and I love that,” said Andrea Ernesaks, another project participant.
Since launching the project on Instagram in January, Dolan has photographed 30 friendships with the hope of one day taking it internationally.
“Can you imagine shooting a friendship in Kenya, or Italy, or Brazile, or Iceland?” said Dolan. “
It’s going to sound cheesy, but behind every great woman is another great woman.”
To learn more about the project, email girlfriendsnation@gmail.com.