It's fair to say that parenting is no picnic, instantly bringing with it a deluge of anxieties and pressures that, while often natural, are fuelled and exacerbated by societal norms and expectations, advertising and social media. Amid the daily grind, and the herculean effort it sometimes takes just to get from one day to the next, it can be hard to find any room to enjoy or even reflect on the experience.
All of which is why Kirsten Lewis' photobook Unsupervised is so powerful and poignant. Its message - "Life is messy. Parenthood is messy. Childhood is messy" - is a source of reassurance for parents the world over, including Lewis herself: "While the intention of this book has always been to give the global community of parents an opportunity to be seen, honoured and celebrated, this process has revealed something much more personal. At the end of the day, I created the book I needed."
In stripping away any artifice and pretence, and instead offering the unvarnished truth, Lewis' remarkably candid images constitute a project that "questions the pressure of perfection widespread across all social media platforms with their carefully 'curated' windows into family life". But Unsupervised is more than merely a stark expose of the gulf between fiction/ideal and reality; on the contrary, it's largely a heartwarming affirmation of an extraordinary and resilient bond. In her words, "[t]he ability to provide evidence of a child's admiration and adoration for their parents is one of the best gifts I can provide as a photographer".
No comments:
Post a Comment