Growing Up Girl: Together/Alone
I began photographing my three daughters to document their lives as well as get a decent picture to hang on my wall. But getting that shot proved harder than I thought. I was apt to take out my camera when they were in the middle of some activity, and I didn’t want to ask them to stop and pose. Nor did they ever seem properly bathed and dressed to photograph for a portrait to hang on my living room wall.
Family life can be chaotic, and of course every family can be a little crazy. The moments I photograph represent the pause in this cacophony. It is often in that pause that children and adolescents reveal a seriousness about them that we as a culture sometimes forget. These unposed images hint at their inner worlds. At times the girls express a child-like comfort in their relationships with others; other times they display the tension that comes from feeling disconnected and alone.
My images show intimate, mostly quiet moments, the ones usually hidden behind closed doors. My daughters and their cousins are not posing for vacation pictures or primping for their facebook selfies. These images are outspoken only because they say what is usually left unsaid. With this project, Growing Up Girl, I aim to capture what happens after the family snapshot is taken, and the camera is put down.
