Our identities are intertwined with the people that raised us and the events that shaped us. The places we come from continue to situate us, even as we begin living in the world beyond their boundaries. Existing within any group, especially a family, is a balancing act of giving and taking. In reenacting intimate, fleeting, and nostalgic moments, this series of images seeks to investigate and make public these experiences.

We often think of family as the primary agents in our life. Because our first social interactions are usually with them, they influence how we think about other relationships. These interactions model our behaviour in interpersonal relationships. The amount of time, space, and experience we have shared create a level of dependency that fluctuates, and evolves as we age. Due to these connections, we are not completely separate individuals. In Ties that Bind, which features photography, video, and objects, I play out and reverse the roles of caregiver/child and independent/dependent in order to examine these shifting relationships and the impact they’ve had on my identity. There is a performance in reenacting these intimate moments, and my closeness to these narratives allows little room for objectivity. The photographs orchestrate fragmented memories drawn from real experiences between myself and my family.