Pinfeathers

Pinfeathers documents the women in my family and our shared experiences. Through my perspective as the eldest daughter, I photograph my mother, my two younger sisters, and the world we share. Shaped by cycles of abuse, addiction, mental illness, and generational trauma, I have long felt responsible for protecting my sisters from the same struggles my mother and I have endured. The title draws from a tattoo of three owls my mother got for my sisters and me, and from a dead owl I found while making this work; symbols of our shared fears for my sisters’ survival and of vulnerability concealed beneath a protective exterior.
I began photographing my sisters when they were 12 and 16. At the time, I was starting to recognize my own past repeating itself in their lives: bullying, abuse, and struggles with self-harm. I often felt powerless, unsure how to help them when I couldn’t even help myself.
Over the three years I have been making this work, both of my sisters have attempted suicide multiple times. The photographs in Pinfeathers come from those years. They reflect what it felt like to witness my sisters’ pain, to care for them, and to carry the weight of being the eldest daughter while trying to keep us all afloat.
Through conversations with my mother, I’ve come to understand that many of the struggles we face did not begin with us. Her childhood was also marked by abuse and instability. Seeing those patterns stretch across generations has shaped my understanding of our lives and the expectations placed on us as women.
This project is deeply personal, but I know our experiences are not unique. Many young women grow up facing similar struggles with little support. Photography has become a way for me to process what we’ve lived through and to connect and share our stories. These images are not only portraits of my family; they are traces of care, time, and survival.
By sharing this work, I hope other people who feel unseen might recognize something of themselves in it. Pinfeathers is both an act of love for my family and an attempt to speak openly about the realities that so many girls like my sisters and me experience.