3 minute read
Nycole Reyes
NYCOLE REYES ADVOCATE, HAIR AND MAKEUP ARTIST
PHOTO BY MILITZA ARENAS
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“The absolutely best saying that I live by is, “If your dream doesn’t scare you then you aren’t dreaming big enough.” Not that we want to live in fear, but only when you dream beyond what you are capable of can God take it to levels you could never obtain on your own.”
Nycole Reyes is a Hair and Makeup artist, using her talent to shine light on some important topics in society! Nycole is a mental health and human rights activist, based in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. She is not your typical glitter and glamour beauty professional, In fact, most of her work highlights the ugly truth of some of the biggest issues we have today! Her work covers topics such as Domestic Violence, Human Trafficking, Depression and so much more. Nycole and her team have done several Awareness shoots around Texas and she has dreams to expand and travel for future shoots. “I am hoping to be able to do some traveling this summer. My photo shoots are completely free to all of the Models, Photographers, and Hair and Makeup Artists. Everything comes out of our own pockets. Traveling will take some planning ahead, but it’s definitely on my to-do list! I have been putting in the work, connecting with people all over the United States so we can do photoshoots nationwide! It is a very big undertaking, so it may take a while to get that planned out.” Nycole has even included her family in her shoots and enjoys sharing her passion with them. “I have 2 children that are both Models. My daughter has been in all of my awareness shoots and my son has been able to participate in 1 so far. My original goal for the awareness photoshoots was to start using our platforms for something important. Most of the Models and Photographers we have come in contact with are only focused on building their portfolios with typical pictures. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing that, but we wanted to do something bigger, something important. We still do different types of photoshoots to add variety to our portfolios, but we want impactful work in there as well.”
THESE 3 IMAGES ARE PART OF NYCOLE’S “MENTAL ILLNESS” AWARENESS SHOOT, DEPICTING EACH MODEL AND PHOTOGRAPHER’S OWN INTERPRETATION OF WHAT SUFFERERS OF MENTAL ILLNESSES FEEL.
MODEL: KAI ECHOLS
PHOTO BY MILITZA ARENAS
MODEL: DIXIE LEIGH
PHOTO BY MILITZA ARENAS
We asked Nycole what inspired her to begin hosting the Awareness Shoots. She said “At the beginning of the Corona Virus quarantine, there was so much buzz about Human Trafficking, I began thinking about it and this was really not a new issue. This had been an issue for hundreds of years! Everyone knew about it, it was just never really discussed. I wanted to “discuss the elephant in the room.” There are so many topics that everyone knows are there, but no one really talks about them. Most people don’t know what it “looks” like. My number one goal at each event is for it to be personal to all involved. I want people that have either personally gone through it or someone close to them has gone through it. To get realistic images, the real emotion of the theme has to be there.” When Nycole started this journey, she had no idea that it was going to grow and turn into a multiple shoot project involving so many amazing people. She mainly wanted to bring attention to human trafficking through her first shoot, but she had such a great response from everyone, that she decided not to just stop there. There are so many other issues that are hidden in plain sight, and Nycole wanted to let her work speak! “When I was planning our last photoshoot, I accidentally posted in a nationwide Facebook group and was blown away by the response! Everyone wanted to help! That motivated me to want to do this nationwide and maybe eventually worldwide. I love hearing people say that we are making a difference.”
