I have been photographing my family vacations for over 12 years. It’s
easy for me to feel invisible as the eldest of five: my parents pushed
me out of my childhood too fast and left me with the weight of an adult
role, often lacking the play and freedom I saw in my siblings. I felt
like an insider with my parents and an outsider with the kids, but
longed for it to be the opposite. While on these trips, I am caught
between my adulthood and my childhood: thrown back into the place where I
am comforted by the familiarity of my family dynamics but also wanting
to escape my well-rehearsed role as a parentified child. This work is an
act of self nurture that lets me engage with my family in a new way
while revealing lingering dynamics from our past.
