''It is my hope that this project helps parents feel less alone, realizing that their experience is a shared one with the global community of parents around the world, to remind us all of how much more we are connected, than divided.'''— Kirsten Lewis
Modern culture signals and defines expectations, in large part to the omnipresence of social media and carefully curated visions of peoples' personal lives. Photographer Kirsten Lewis's book
Unsupervised presents a raw, honest look at how some families navigate the challenges and joys of raising children. Lewis celebrates and normalizes the inherently chaotic task of managing the ever-changing needs of children, home, self, and daily life, and the beauty within the mess of it all.
Spending between 24 and 72 hours documenting each family, Lewis's intimate black and white photographs capture caught moments within the homes of a variety of families as the project unfolded over 14 years. The images explore the fullness of parenting, from the unexpected chaos to the quiet shared moments.
The trust between the families and Lewis is evidenced by the level of intimacy she was able to witness and capture with her camera. This project also questions the pressure of perfection widespread across all social media platforms with carefully curated windows into family life
Quotes from Lewis and the adults and children also give insight into their inner narratives and impressions. The children's quotes remind the viewer of the unique and unfettered minds of young people. The thoughts of the adults highlight a vulnerability, as well as learning, that co-occurs throughout the parenting process.
Drawings and ephemera from the children and parents are interspersed throughout the images and are presented in color, adding graphic elements that deepen the narrative of the families' experiences.
Lewis wrote an introduction to the book, and she discusses the role of photography in helping preserve tangible images of the fast-moving experience of parenting. She writes,
Photographs are a way to make up for the loss of these memories, preserving and triggering particular times in history.
She also considers the vehicle of this book as a way to celebrate the families she photographed, but also serving as a deeply personal project for her own processing of the arc of parenting, starting with what she experienced herself as a child and learned about parenting through that lens. She shares,
''While the intention of this book has always been to give the global community of parents an opportunity to be seen, honored and celebrated, this process has revealed something much more personal. At the end of the day, I created a book I, Kirsten Lewis, needed.''
Unsupervised represents over 86 individual families on every continent (except Antarctica) and was intentionally inclusive of different faiths, races, socio-economic demographics, disabilities and members of the LGBTQIA community. In addition, Kirsten was mindful of photographing different types of family, such as traditional, adopted, and fostered. Married, partnered, divorced, single and widowed families are all present here as well. Lewis herself is raising three children in a blended family. She is Jewish and second generation from an immigrant family and identifies as queer.
About the artist:
Kirsten Lewis is an international photographer, educator and public speaker based in Colorado. Over the last 2 decades she has traveled to over 40 countries to work with organizations, non-profits, companies and individuals creating documentary-based pictures to aid in fundraising, advertising, awareness and personal family archive builds.
kirstenlewisphoto.com
