[The Guardian] Friendship, freedom and fragility: the photographer who returns to her teenage years

Friendship, freedom and fragility: the photographer who returns to her teenage years

Beauty and pain coexisted for Tajette O’Halloran when she came of age in northern NSW. As an adult she is recreating scenes from her adolescence

I grew up in the northern rivers of New South Wales in the 1990s. It was a place of stark contrasts: utopian dreams, alternative culture and abject social disadvantage. Since that time I have spent many years reflecting on my coming of age in such an unusual place and how it has shaped my adult life.

In 2014 I started taking pictures in an effort to reconcile the complexities of my past. Having witnessed up close the devastating ramifications of addiction, poverty and discrimination, I recognised that I had been carrying the weight of these burdens through my life. Fuelled by nostalgia and longing I was compelled to return to my home town over and over, using photography to rebuild my history from the perspective of an adult and a mother. The unprocessed grief of my youth was setting the foundation for my photographic practice.

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