Project Statement

Sweetie is a handmade book and is an ongoing project that is reflection of my family’s experience with international adoption. The identity of an international adoptee is complex as they belong to two separate cultures and often feel torn between the two. I want to show the complexities of identity for an adoptee and the difficult journey of becoming a parent. To represent the child and parent I use my own adoption story as an example. I combine my images with my mom’s archived images, journal entries, and written material and create small photo collages. Having my mother’s perspective of my adoption story with my photographs is helpful as it metaphorically represents the feelings between parent and child that go unseen. The goal of this project isn’t to indict the parent, but to bring awareness to families and peers in similar situations.