Artist Statement

Abandonment can come from anything that one loves- friends, pets, objects, or even family. I chose to focus on the idea of a couple getting divorced and leaving their child feeling abandoned due to a broken family. When parents break apart, one may leave and it often feels as if the children are being left behind as well and can create feelings of anger. In my work, the subject is leaning over her parent’s divorce agreement with a photo of her mother and herself ripped down the middle, showcasing how she feels left behind by her mother who is leaving. There is also a note from her mother that reads “I’m coming back honey. It’s not forever. I love you. -Mom”. This note is crumpled up as if the child who is reading the paper did it herself out of anger, much like the ripped photo.

To take this photo, I found a realistic looking divorce agreement and a photo of a mother and child. I ripped the photo down the middle and had the subject hold it, looking down on the two papers. I originally took this photo without the note in the picture, but then decided it would make more sense to include something that directly shows how the subject has been left behind by one of her parents. I crumpled the note up after writing it and placed it on top of the divorce agreement.

Shooting for this work has taught me how to properly edit backgrounds that have non-symmetrical patterns. The background, a table, is patterned and I had to edit lines out of the table in order for it to look cleaner. I learned how to do this through photoshop.