Yesterday We Were Girls

The progression to adulthood is often difficult, but it is an especially punishing experience for girls. My adolescence took place within the context of a strict Mennonite community and was further complicated by a family history of stigmatized and concealed mental illness. My own struggles with depression and anxiety, along with leaving the faith traditions of my family, during adolescence have continued to affect me well into adulthood. As a photographer, I explore my own past, the lost innocence of girlhood, and the ramifications of this loss.

Yesterday We Were Girls includes photographs selected from my family albums, primarily made by my male relatives, and current images I create based on childhood memories. The family photographs reduce multiple perspectives into a single, fixed narrative which reinforces patriarchal values while the photographs I make of myself, my female relatives, and our domestic environments add my perspective on my own history. In a large-scale collage piece, I alter the photographs by adding and removing visual and written information—fragmenting, tearing, and sewing back together to reveal the disjointed sensations and selectivity of memory. The photographic works are accompanied by porcelain recreations of precious girlhood treasures and handwritten poetic prose. Specifically focusing on mother-daughter relationships and ancestral female bonds, this body of work invites reexamination of the cheerful veneer depicted in traditional images of girls, families, and domestic life.