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Miranda Barnes, Social Season, Important Flowers

Courtesy of the artist and MACK.February 9, 2026Art & Photography / LightboxArt & Photography / LightboxMiranda Barnes’ elegant portraits of Detroit’s Black debutante ball

‘Despite their outfits and their achievements, they are still just young people who want to have fun’: Social Season depicts a glamorous coming-of-age ritual in Michigan

ShareLink copied ✔️February 9, 2026February 9, 2026TextZara AfthabMiranda Barnes, Social Season Miranda Barnes, Social Season, Important Flowers

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Throughout her career, Brooklyn-based photographer Miranda Barnes has spent time immersed in different communities, cultures and subcultures across America, from church congregations and cheerleading teams, to rodeos and much more. In 2021, she began focusing her attention on a Black debutante ball hosted by the Cotillion Society of Detroit Educational Foundation, and realised that fully embodying the spirit of the event would require much more than an isolated evening. “When I reached out to Dr Renita Barge Clark, who founded the Society, I knew I wanted to make a book where I’d have one debutante ball as a feature among all the other events,” she says. “But [during] the first year, it became very clear to me that I would have to dedicate at least a few more years to this project.”

Published by Mack and Sofia Coppola’s publishing imprint, Important Flowers, Barnes’ book Social Season reveals a world that most people encounter only in the Gilded Age-era novels of Edith Wharton or an episode of Gossip Girl. Like those books and TV show, Black debutante balls are glamorous affairs, as seen in Barnes’ photographs of the young debutantes in floor-length white gowns with pearls around their necks, holding bouquets of pink roses and baby’s breath as they help each other fix their tiaras or take staged portraits with family.

A standout photograph, which opens the book, depicts the teenagers sitting on a marble floor, enveloped by their taffeta and lace skirts and admittedly looking a bit bored. Here, they wait with their father-figures for their turn to be presented at the ball, which is held at the historic Detroit Masonic Temple, the largest Masonic temple in the world. “The participants at the ball doubled in size halfway through my time there, and so now you have 60 kids taking part in the ceremony. There’s a lot of waiting time for the other groups when they’re not being introduced, so I was trying to take advantage of that time to make some interesting photographs,“ Barnes explains.

Miranda Barnes, Social Season (Important Flowers, 2026).Courtesy of the artist and MACK.

Similar moments of waiting are interspersed throughout the book, alongside scenes from the ball, where the debutantes and their escorts waltz on the sprawling dance floor, and close-up photographs that highlight the intricate embroidery on the lace skirts or the expertly tied bows. “I was really impressed by how these kids dressed, and every year I looked forward to seeing how the trends had changed and what new thing everyone would be wearing. Some years, the girls wore big bows on the back, and in others, there was a bit more lace,” Barnes shares. “Despite there being a dress code, it was wonderful to see personality traits shine through in these styling choices.”

As the project was made exclusively on 35mm film and Super 8, Barnes relied on trial and error over the four years it took to complete the project. “I approached every year differently and would look back at the photographs I made in the previous year to single out what I needed to go for and what didn’t work”, she says. Working in the Masonic Temple was a challenge in itself: the Crystal Ballroom is situated underground, which meant she had to play around with lighting to ensure the photographs were properly exposed.

“Most of my images in my early years were made solely with natural light, so being in the Temple forced me to learn how to work with lighting,” she explains. “I was trying to make those soft, intimate photographs that really embody the feeling of the event, so a direct flash wasn’t cutting it. Halfway through the project, I brought along assistants who helped me hold a light behind me that would fill the room and soften the image a little.”

Miranda Barnes, Social Season (Important Flowers, 2026).Courtesy of the artist and MACK.

In our conversation, I point out to Barnes that these photographs bring to the fore what many consider a beautiful yet bygone ritual, rooted in an anti-feminist idea of presenting young women of marriageable age to society – given the rising appeal of tradwife culture in the West, one would be rightly anxious about seeing young girls in white dresses and tiaras accompanied by their male partners in morning suits. But Barnes likens this ritual, specifically the balls she attended, more to a Sweet 16 or a quinceañera. “In many ways, it’s like a prom or a party – a coming-of-age ritual rather than [young women] being presented to polite society in any real way.”

As Barnes points out, it’s rare that the debutantes and their escorts are actually dating, and the tradition is more about these kids celebrating their achievements with the people they grew up with. “I don’t want to speak for white cotillions, but Black cotillions are education-based. While photographing the introductions in the ballroom, I learned about their GPAs, interests, extracurricular activities and the college they will attend in September. It was a beautiful experience for me to witness each year and I was moved almost to tears thinking about how these kids will become community leaders in the future.”

Often drawn to these moments of community and kinship, Barnes has previously photographed her goddaughter’s middle school prom in Harlem. While this was a very different experience, what the two events shared was camaraderie among friends and a sense of ceremony. “There’s a misconception that these kids are very proper all the time at these cotillions, but really they are turning up to Chief Keef after the formal ceremony is finished. It turns into a prom-type thing. It is a reminder that, despite their outfits and their achievements, they are still just young people who want to have fun.”

Miranda Barnes’ Social Season is published by Mack and Important Flowers and is available here.

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