At the very beginning of Anna Karenina Lev Tolstoy wrote this line: «Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way».
I don’t know if that’s true, I just know that there are a lot of messed-up families and that every family goes through difficult times.
My family, composed by my parents and me, was an unhappy one.
My mother, a smart and open-minded woman, suffered from psychosis and bipolar disorder; my father, a sweet and quiet man, wasn’t able di manage her problems and got depressed.
At one time, however, they loved each other and always tried their best to leave the swamp, even if they sometimes failed.
The life of every human being is filled with pain, misunderstanding, frustration and, of course, love, joy, enthusiasm. We can express all these feelings through words, but sometimes these can be difficult to find or otherwise empty and false.
Maybe only pictures, if they are not retouched or deepfake, don’t lie: stares, body postures, grimaces, messy kitchens, improbable outfits… often tell more than the words themselves.
On this blog I tell the story of my family through photographs, with the intention of bringing out humanity, love, tenderness and forgiveness in every picture, even if it is not always joyful.
In fact, I am particularly attracted to “bad” pictures, the ones where someone is clearly uncomfortable, the ones where you can feel that something is going wrong. Here, if you look for it well and get rid of resentment and recrimination, lies the true poetry of difficult relationships. If you accept them you can emancipate yourself from their toxicity and go further. And perhaps find something resembling a form of serenity.
If you like, you can contribute to this project and narrate your own story with pictures.
Go to the Submit page and follow the instructions to publish your photos on this blog.
Lots of love!
S.
My Unhappy Family 