Chrysalis



I have always had an innate sense of longing and belonging to the one place I have lived my whole life. Never having felt quite ready to "fly the nest” and rooted in the house which holds my childhood memories, ‘Chrysalis’ explores the fragility of growing up and the inevitability of the passing of time. The project is a personal need to document my final moments of childlike naivety, as well as a delicate metamorphosis into maturity. Using photography, I explore my relationship to this house and my family with both my adult perspective, as well as an inner child that remains attached to these people and places. Although an introspective body of work, ‘Chrysalis’ is a universal ode to home relating to a transitional period of adolescence to adulthood we all must go through.

This work follows my anxieties and fears with the process of growing up. It is at this point in my life, I feel more stagnant between adolescence and adulthood than I have ever before. On the cusp of leaving university, I am reminded that my years in education are over, resulting in me moving back home. The notion of moving back doesn't scare me, but the questioning of my “household role” does. I will always be my parent's daughter, always the youngest child, but as I get older, I am left with the question of who is looking after who. 

Throughout the work, I photographed myself within the space of my childhood home, as well as documenting faceless portraits of my parents. Their faces are never present in the work, emphasising the slipping motion of time, and the reality that they are no longer the biggest part of my life. Yet, their unwavering love doesn't diminish, it is now more behind the scenes of everything I do.