Excerpt:
Leopardprint with attitude, covered in flowers and bows, or sleek black with gold chains. Sara Shamsavari's street-style portraits capture young women in veils of a dizzying array of colours and fashions. The Iranian-born photographer was inspired to create the pictures, being exhibited to coincide with International Women's Day, to celebrate how the head coverings had led to an outpouring of creativity and originality in the way they are worn.
Shamsavari visited different areas of London to take 100 images, 50 of which will go on display in the Royal Festival Hall in London. "They were all people I saw while out walking, so the project had that element of excitement about it," she says. "I didn't know who I would see, and then I would find myself chasing down the street after someone.
"In Marble Arch, there is this fashion for looking as expensive as you can, whereas in Whitechapel it was all about creativity – the young women may not have been wearing designer clothes but they had an attitude of 'we know how to put it together'."