For the first time, the Confetti Project is coming to Washington.
The Brooklyn-based group will be hosting its confetti-filled photoshoots at Bethesda Row from November 7 to 10. Founder Jelena Aleksich will be on-site to host mini sessions with guests, where they’ll get doused with confetti as she asks thought-provoking questions about what they celebrate in their lives. Additionally, Bethesda Row will host special photoshoots for Children’s National patients and their families on November 6.
Aleksich started the series five years ago after she left her job at Thinx, the feminine hygiene brand. “It was my first job out of college, and I was so burnt out,” she says. “I didn’t really have time to pay attention to things in my life surrounding anything other than work.”
After leaving her job, she found she was paying more attention to the symbolism behind life’s events. She went to a party where she was glitter-bombed and kept finding the sparkly stuff sprinkled throughout her home for weeks. And then she attended an Ok Go concert where confetti rained down from the ceiling, and, on a day weeks later when she was feeling particularly down, she discovered some leftover in her jacket pocket.
“I was so pleasantly surprised and I got really joyful,” she says. “This was the beginning of me realizing that anything that can change your energy instantly is really powerful.”
She wanted to bring that same surprise and delight to others, which is how the Confetti Project was born. What started out as her taking photos of people in her bedroom has expanded to her full-time gig. Since then, she’s photographed over 4,000 people and staged confetti shoots with brands like Bliss and Bergdorf Goodman.
She’s also run several social awareness campaigns focused on topics like mental health or body positivity, where her subjects’ personal stories are shared on her website along with their confetti-filled photos.
Aleksich sees the project as a means of creating a therapeutic experience for her subjects, many of whom have never had their photos professionally taken. “[It] gets them out of their comfort zone. There’s definitely a mystique to it,” she says. “When I ask them [the prompts], that’s a really great primer for them to start becoming reflective and think, well, where am I in my life?”
She wants to bring that same accepting, contemplative environment to Washington when she comes to Bethesda Row. “Whatever season you find yourself in, every moment is to be celebrated,” she says, “not just the rainbow sparkly ones.”
All photo sessions at the Washington pop-up will cost $50 and are limited to parties of five. Guests will also receive a goody bag and a Framebridge discount if they wish to frame their photos. The pop-up will be open on November 7 and 8 from 3 to 7 PM and November 9 and 10 from 11 AM to 2 PM.
The Confetti Project pop-up; 7025 Arlington Rd., Bethesda
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s written for The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
