Family, Love & Hate | Growing Up In Poverty | A Photographer’s Story

Artist and Photographer John-David Richardson is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Someday I’ll Find The Sun’. To see John-David ’s body of work, click on any image.

I am a product of poverty. The circumstances of my upbringing prepared me for a world where worth is defined by class. Growing up, I watched my family fight to make ends meet– their efforts constantly falling short due to addiction, domestic violence, and a lack of education. This unrelenting cycle shaped my worldview at an early age, and I came to understand family as a collision of love and hate.

My childhood memories exist only as isolated fragments of time– like a puzzle I’m continually piecing together. In Someday I’ll Find the Sun, I use photography as a tool to interpret the complex and traumatic environment that shaped me. Through my images, I urge the viewer to understand the emotional and psychological weight of living in poverty on both an honest and human level.