← Return to Colossal Wait: 2022 Senior Art Exhibition
My younger sister was born in 2013, nearly 13 years after me. Her experience as a child has been vastly different than mine. Between her access to social media, the pandemic, and living with five adults for her entire life, she has grown up and matured much faster than I did.
I have been documenting my sister's transition from childhood into adolescence through photography, seeking to capture her in the environment in which she has spent her entire life. I like to focus on the generational differences between us. Some things she and I grew up with are the same, while some things I love from my childhood are completely obscured for her. In my photographs, I like to incorporate my sister’s toys and objects, as they reflect the influences of past and current trends at her school.
I photograph on a digital camera and print on a large scale. These images contain vibrant hues of cyan, magenta, and gold that create a whimsical aura. I use a wide aperture and a shallow depth of field to imbue the photographs with a blurry, dreamlike look, as though my own childhood were also captured in these images.
It is exciting to document my sister growing and changing into the person she will become. I also find myself at a stage in my life where I am turning into the person I will become—though mine is perhaps more stressful—so the idea of holding on to some of the joys and nostalgia of childhood through these photographs is, in a sense, therapeutic for me.