Scenes From a Teenager’s World
Polish photographer Magdalena Wywrot’s book Pestka offers a disorienting, playful, and mysterious look at a mother-daughter relationship.
By Gaia Squarci. Photographs by Magdalena Wywrot.
Magdalena Wywrot began photographing her daughter Barbara at the threshold of adolescence, around age 11, and continued over the next seven years until she turned 18.
The book steps away from the nostalgic mood and gentle palette often associated with family projects. Its black-and-white images feel eerie, mischievous, fierce. A dreamlike unease runs through the series, while an undefined presence slowly reveals itself in the corners and shadows of the frame.
In Polish, “pestka” refers to the stone or seed that must break open for growth to begin. The enigmatic force that drifts through the images echoes this idea: a coming-of-age shaped by unanswered questions, shifts in identity, and the subtle distance that emerges between children and their parents.
The book Pestka is published by Deadbeat Club and available at the price of 60$.
