"Failed Realist": Children's drawings on the face of the mother

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week we are publishing the series “Failed Realist” by the famous Irish photographer Trish Morrissey: for two years her little daughter painted her mother's face with paints, and then she made self-portraits. This series develops the exciting topic of family and relationships between relatives, as well as their perceptions of each other and society.

I wanted to become a writer, but I discovered a photo for myself when I got a job at a photo lab in a large Irish newspaper in a city where I grew up. One day, I borrowed a camera from one of the regular photographers and went to shoot Dublin. When I showed the film, I felt this magic - when photos appear from the darkness, and at that moment I realized that I had felt the material with which I like to work. However, I firmly understood that I did not want to be a photojournalist. It took me years to find my own style and style before I decided to enroll in a photography course at the magistracy of the University of Central London. One of the main themes of my work is family and its perception. Family is a concept at the same time deeply personal and at the same time absolutely universal. The language of family photography is understandable throughout the world, he knows no boundaries - neither cultural nor generational. And the deconstruction, transformation of this familiar language gives rise to completely new meanings. The series “The Failed Realist” has grown out of our common games and communication with our daughter, this is the result of my cooperation with her, but I fully agreed with her and her desires. My task was only to document the results. We spent many rainy days playing with face paints, and usually I painted her face - mostly butterflies or fairies. But gradually she got tired of it, she lost her patience and decided to take everything into her own hands. With the help of paint and a brush, she wanted to express what she had learned. It became very interesting to me what can come out if we change roles with it and it will be a kind of motherly view on the contrary. So usually, while she was painting, I closed my eyes and did not look. Over time, my daughter lost interest in the project. It took more than an hour to draw the first “picture” (“Pocahontas”), and she painted the last one, made two years later (“Spotted Cat”), in just a couple of minutes. I immediately understood that our project came to an end on this, because she did it without the slightest excitement.