Growing up in a small farming town in northern Belgium, Eva Verbeeck learned about the USA the same way most Europeans do, via films, magazines and music videos. In her mind, then, the typical American girl conformed to a number of well-worn stereotypers. A cheerleader. A science nerd. A goth. All, in their own way, glamorous, distant (both figuratively and literally) and slightly unreal.
Years later, while living in the States herself, she set out to meet the real thing, and take some photographs. This turned out to be many, many photographs.
The project began in 2018 with a group of cheerleaders in Savannah, Georgia. Verbeeck wanted to avoid casting girls to fit a preconceived idea, so she found her subjects through open calls, schools, youth groups and community events.
She invited each of them to bring along something that mattered to her. What they brought varied enormously: a tiara, an electric guitar, a competition rifle, a horse and a CPR training dummy. Though she notes in the book that “none ever choose a piece of technology,” which itself speaks volumes.
The importance of format
Verbeeck shot mostly on 4x5 and 8x10 large format cameras, which slows everything down. That was no accident. “The slowness of the process created space for conversation, vulnerability, and trust,” she explains.
The choice of large-format also meant her pictures looked nothing like the selfies these girls were used to. “The large=format camera slows the process down and results in something so foreign that it does not correspond to the image they have created and curated of themselves online,” she writes.
Verbeeck notes that grandmother has only five photos of her as a child. Back then, a photographer would come to town, families would book a slot, and everyone would dress up for the occasion. Today, Verbeeck notes, “It is no longer special or valuable to have a photograph of yourself.” Paradoxically, this helps her portraits feel more real, because the girls care less about the picture and more about the conversation around it.
The project went well beyond the shoots. Through interviews, recorded conversations and letters, the girls talked about friendship, family, their bodies, ambitions and fears. In Ithaca, New York, one 15-year-old waited until everyone else had gone home to show Verbeeck an essay she’d written about sexism.
Now 54 of the best images have been brought together in a new photobook from GOST. Shot on film between 2018 and 2024, it features girls aged between six and 18 from 28 states.
“The idea of the ‘American girl’ existed in my imagination long before I ever came to the United States, built from fragments of images, fantasies, and stories that felt impossibly far away from where I grew up,” she says. Most of us who don't live in the States probably have similar fantasies: this book is a welcome antidote.
America’s Girls, On the Edge of a Dream by Eva Verbeeck is published by GOST. A 104-page clothbound hardback measuring 290 x 350mm, with 54 color images, it costs $60 / £45. The work is on show at CC De Factorij in Belgium until October 31.
Verbeeck is also giving a talk at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) on November 18, and she’s a headline artist at Belgrade Photo Month in May 2027.
