These Four Walls, a mixed-media collaboration by photographer Laura Foster and inter-disciplinary artist Natasha Parker-Edwards, is a visual response to the pressure felt as young women moving into adulthood.

Investigating themes of gender, the home, isolation and up-heval, the work creates a necessary representation of the harsh realities of ‘coming of age’ in visual culture.

For many women ‘coming of age’ isn’t as euphoric and idealistic as it is often portrayed. We wanted to create a peice that became a visual representation of the more realistic side of navigation into adulthood as a woman today. Girlhood to womanhood, a complex and difficult journey for so many. One that is so often intertwined with mental illness and reckless behaviour, all in the desperation to succeed. Consequently, young women across the country are fighting against obstacles and expectations to find their own identity.

Using a multitude of techniques within photography and printing, we wanted to create a complex and emotive series that is as powerful as it is vulnerable. We wanted to draw from our own childhoods, and our own journeys into adulthood as young women, to allow us to create an honest narrative of coming of age.

This project is a work in progress.