Photographer Captures the Devastating Effects of Mental Illness in Her Family

Chicago-based photographer Lisa Lindvay opens the door to her home in an intimate portrait of a family coping with mental illness. Though Lindvay’s mother is absent, the signs of her struggle are present in every frame, each image heavy with abandon and quiet exhaustion. Here we are privy to the deeply private tale of her father and sibling’s lives behind the closed and musty blinds, the grimy floors and junk food artifacts a constant reminder of what is broken and missing. The family maintains a stoic presence throughout the series, belaboring with an almost classical melancholy in the everyday tragedy that has befallen them. The crumbling home a metaphor for her mother’s deteriorating state of health, Lindvay’s ongoing work is a radically bare and powerful examination of familial survival when all feels lost.

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