I Made Them Run Away.

Photographs by Martina Zanin.

Skinnerboox, Jesi, Italy, 2021. English, 132 pp., 6½x9¼".

‘It was summer and as many children did, I spent my days in a summer camp. One night I was very excited when I came home and after having had dinner with my grandmother I went upstairs, where my mother and I lived, with the intention of going to sleep. As I entered, I saw my mother and a man sitting on the couch watching television. My mother asked me how my day had been and I couldn’t stop myself from showing both of them what I had learned. I started dancing and singing in front of the television for about 10 minutes, until the man interrupted my performance by saying “It’s late, I’d better go.”, followed by my mother’s glare towards me. Having said goodbye to the man, my mother came back in the house yelling at me: “How is it possible that you make them all run away?”.’

I Made Them Run Away is a multi-layered story weaving together family images and photographs with texts written by the artist's mother. It brings together memories from the past and feelings of the present to investigate the dynamics of relationships - the need for attention, the expectations that cause disillusionment, insecurity and judgment. Shifting between the different points of view, Zanin depicts the recurring complicated triangle relationship between she, her mother and the “man”, not constant, mostly represented as an absence in the work.

Reviewed by Odette England on photo-eye Blog.

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