Trash The Prom Dress...for charity

Many people have heard of the trend of "trashing" a wedding dress. I'm not sure where it all started or by who, but it's been going for a few years now. The idea is that you wear this dress once and then store it away presumably to hand it down. But, you can still have some fun with it before you have it cleaned. I've done a few sessions like this with brides and they're so cool. From the bride's standpoint, they get great photographs of themselves wearing their wedding dress in an unconventional environment. As a photographer, it gives me a creative release to try something unusual.

As a high school teacher and school photographer, I take lots of pictures at the prom. It dawned on me one day that we can take this dress-trashing trend and transfer it to prom dresses! In 2009, I did my first Trash The Prom Dress photoshoot and I loved it (see below)!

Since this photoshoot, I've offered to do it a few times and it's always been fun for me as well as the girls. But it dawned on me one day...what do you do with the dress afterwards? I was assured by two drycleaners that the dresses could be cleaned and brought back to good as new, and I had the idea to donate the dresses to charity! There are numerous organizations in the area that take used dresses and make them available to underprivileged girls for little or no cost. And I began offering these sessions free of charge if the girls donate their dresses after they are cleaned.

It was time to do another shoot, so I posted it on social media, contacted a few students, spread the word, and had nine girls show up to trash then donate their dresses. This one turned out to be my favorite session yet, here's a few of my favorite images:

And here's a few outtakes just for fun (all photos are taken at the edge of the water and are completely safe):

 

If you'd like to see more of these types of images, please visit the Sea-niors gallery on my website-http://www.samellis.com/Archive/Seniors/Sea-niors/

If you are interested in signing up for my next Trash The Dress session for prom/homecoming/wedding/bridesmaids dresses, email me at sam@samellis.com.