Photographer Carolyn Drake revisited an Ukrainian children’s home to document the progress of the young women, who are judged to suffer from mental disabilities, in her photo series, ‘Orphan Girls’.
During her second visit in eight years, she was surprised to find most of the girls still living there.
Even their routines remain unchanged—the girls still head to their corner classroom every morning to watch television, and work on craft projects.
This time, she invited the girls to pose for a portrait, and work or play around with props that were taken from the orphanage.
In an interview with Feature Shoot, Drake said that the girls “seemed free-spirited in the way that children do, and only partly molded by expectations of the society at large.”
Scroll down to view Drake’s insightful portraits of the young women, or head to her website for more.
[via Feature Shoot, Images by Carolyn Drake]