Yesterday We Were Girls by Katie Prock

"Yesterday We Were Girls" is a mixed-media project on rebuilding identity. Leaving her Mennonite faith, the artist faced guilt, fear, and newfound freedom. Her collage alters photos and drawings to reflect this journey.

As a teenager, the artist left her family’s Mennonite faith tradition and felt the need to leave the entire culture behind. Her search for identity is characterised by her struggle with feelings of guilt and fear of the break with a system that had shaped her previous life, as well as the freedom of choice as an uprooted, almost adult woman. This large-format collage documents the slow process of rebuilding. By adding and removing information, the artist alters photographs, fragments, tears and sews them back together to reveal her personal history and disjointed feelings.

Although she feels distant from her family, as the piece shows, the cycles of womanhood and domestic life continue to repeat themselves, bringing them together despite ideological differences.

Katie Prock is a photographic artist and bookmaker. Her work explores identity, gender, family history, and girlhood through alternative printing techniques and handcrafted processes which emphasize chance occurrence and imperfections.

Winner of the De Pietri Artphilein Foundation Photobook Contest 2023.