Swedish artist David Magnusson has photographed and interviewed young girls and their fathers who have participated in Purity Balls in Louisiana, Colorado and

Arizona. During a Purity Ball young girls promise to “live pure lives before God” and to remain virgins until marriage. In return, their fathers sign a commitment promising to protect their daughters’ chastity. Sometimes rings are exchanged as a symbol of their vows.

“When I first heard about the Purity Balls I imagined American fathers terrified of anything that might hurt their daughters or their families honour. But as I learnt more, I understood that the fathers, like all parents, simply wanted to protect the ones that they love – in the best way they know how. The more I learned, the more I was surprised that I had been so quick to judge people I knew so little about. In Purity I wanted to create portraits so beautiful that the girls and their fathers could be proud of the pictures in the same way they are proud of their decisions – while someone from a different background might see an entirely different story in the very same photographs. To me, Purity is about how we are shaped by the society in which we grow up and how we interpret the world through the values we incorporate as our own.”