Nick in his Old Room

About the Photographer

Lindvay, Lisa

American, b. 1983

Lisa Lindvay’s ongoing series offers a highly personal look into the daily lives of her family members as they grapple with the effects of her mother’s mental illness. Though we never actually see Lindvay’s mother, her influence is felt by her family and the spaces they inhabit. Photographed over the past five years, the disheveled appearances of her father, sister, and two brothers is mirrored in the unkempt and chaotic appearance of their home. These scenes–including a bathroom sink that serves as an ashtray for a growing pile of cigarettes (Bathroom Sink, 2012); empty 2-liter soda bottles bursting out from underneath a bare bed bunk frame (Nick in His Old Room, 2007); and her father and two brothers looking despairingly at their fast-food meal of fries and hamburgers (Dinner, 2009) – show a literal deterioration of their home life while also serving as a metaphor for her mother’s declining health.

Lisa Lindvay completed a MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2009) and a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (2005). She has been included in exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago (2011, 2010); National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2009); and in the traveling exhibition, The Kids are All Right (2012-13). Currently living and working in Chicago, IL, in 2012 Lindvay participated in a residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.