9 Sisters

A photographic project exploring sisterhood, shared childhood and the different paths we take as we grow up. Combining family archive photographs with images made today, I reflect on the bonds that connect us and the distances that remain.

9 Sisters is an ongoing project about sisterhood and growing up in a family of twelve children within a religious community. The project focuses on the relationships between my sisters and me, exploring how our shared childhood continues to shape our lives. Combining photographs from our family archive with images made today, I reflect on the bonds that connect us and the differences that shape our individual paths.

My sisters and I shared almost everything: rooms, clothes, crushes, secrets and everyday life. We explored the world beyond our upbringing in small, secret ways: experimenting with makeup, listening to rock music with an ear pressed to the radio, and watching television at a classmate’s. The room we shared gave us space to grow and express desires, pain, beliefs and doubts we could not express elsewhere. Within those walls, it was safe to fight, explore and be ourselves, away from the strict rules of our religious community. Living between these two worlds brought its own contradictions. I was drawn to what lay beyond the familiar, while my family offered a sense of safety and belonging. Shame and a sense of being different shaped how I saw myself, but with my sisters, I could be myself without pretending.

As we grew older, we began to question the roles and expectations placed on us as girls, each in our own way. Yet unspoken rules remained, like an unseen guardian marking what was allowed and what was not. Age differences shaped our roles and responsibilities. I took on a caring role with my younger siblings, while some of my sisters had more freedom to leave. We grew and changed at different paces in our relationships with our family, faith and community. When one of us moved out or questioned the rules, it affected us all, bringing pain, fear and jealousy, but also opening up possibilities for others to find their own way.

For over two decades, I have photographed my family as we spend time together. Moving between the collective and the personal, I capture the rhythms and cacophony of family life alongside my individual relationships with my sisters. Yet there are bonds and alliances between them that remain beyond my reach. Our shared history connects us, but it does not give me access to every part of their lives.

Even today, many of us slip back into our childhood roles when we gather. Old patterns and unspoken rules can resurface, even as we have grown and changed. I am interested in how our family dynamics shift as different combinations of sisters, brothers, parents, nieces and nephews come together.

Many of my sisters have become mothers, and a new generation is growing up in the family. I find myself wondering what we carry forward from our childhood, what we leave behind, and what might change. Through photography, I return to these relationships with love and curiosity, seeing my sisters not only through our shared past but also as the people they are today.