Sonya, right, yells at her mother Amber after Amber told her mother to change her youngest son Seth’s clothes after he peed himself. “You’re his mother,” Sonya screamed. “Start acting like it!” (Photo by: Maddie McGarvey)
In rural Southeast Ohio, family dynamics are shifting. Under the pressure of everything from economic hardships to epidemic drug abuse, traditional nuclear families are ending. Today, one in twelve children in the region live primarily with a grandparent. As the next generation of women come of age, questions arise. Faced with the added challenge of home-life, on top of the uncertainties of childhood, can the cycle be broken, or does the legacy set down before them define their future as well as their present.
Sonya Casto, like many young women in America, is dealing with a non-traditional family structure while navigating her teenage years. Her parents have been swept into the drug epidemic that has afflicted so much of the Midwest and Appalachia. Her grandparents are doing the best to raise her and her siblings while sacrificing their own life savings and golden years.
Sonya has experienced a huge amount of trauma— some of her first memories being men chopping off her hair and throwing her down stairs. But through therapy, grandparents who have given her a stable home despite their socioeconomic background, and a fresh start in a new town that promises more opportunity, she is thriving.
I started working on this project when I was a sophomore in college and have followed this family for nearly ten years. I was curious what this new family dynamic looked like, and the Casto’s welcomed me in as one of their own. I essentially grew up as a photographer with this family. I focused mostly on the oldest daughter, Sonya, and her relationship with both her mother and grandmother. She clearly remembered the abuse she went through as a child, and struggled with PTSD. I began photographing her when she was 9 years old, and now she’s a junior in high school.
Sonya Casto spent some time with her cousins in Port Clinton, OH. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
I strove to capture that nuance and depth in the thousands of images I have taken of the family over the years. I wanted people to understand Sonya’s story, to connect with her but also to enable her to return their gaze. I wanted them to see all the facets of the girl who looked back at me. As Sonya got older, she started talking to me about her crushes and boys at school. In certain ways, we grew up together–both of us have reached pivotal moments of adulthood in the time in which I have been documenting the Casto’s.
The camera has always been there, but I felt at times more like an older sister than someone hanging around taking pictures. Being intertwined in the Casto’s lives has allowed be not only access to places and events but to an emotional understanding I could not have otherwise captured in my frames. I hope to continue documenting this family for years to come.
Photo essay
Click on the image to open the slide show.
Sonya, now 13, stood on her street in Carbondale, which was a coal mining town in in Southeastern Ohio. The mines have all been closed years ago. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya lays on her bed with a bag covering her head. Sonya suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after living with her mother in shambles and being abused by her mother’s boyfriends. Lorrie, her grandmother, does the best she can to deal with it. “Sometimes she’s just too much to handle and I get mad at her,” Lorrie says. “But I can’t. This isn’t her fault. She didn’t ask for that abuse.” (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya gets off the school bus at her grandmother’s house only to be yelled at by her mother, Amber. Amber attempts to be a larger part of her children’s lives, but is unfit to be a parent. She doesn’t have custody of her two daughters, refuses to get a job, and is constantly living in and out of homeless shelters. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Lorrie gets Sonya ready for the local beauty pageant. Although she doesn’t have a lot of money to spend, she buys dresses at thrift stores and makes sure her grandchildren can participate in the activities they want to do. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonja swung her sister around while her grandmother did some paperwork at the dinning table. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya, right, yells at her mother Amber after Amber told her mother to change her youngest son Seth’s clothes after he peed himself. “You’re his mother,” Sonya screamed. “Start acting like it!” (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya and her little sister Paige sit in a car after their Aunt’s wedding in Ohio. Sonya, now 13, acts as a mother figure to her younger siblings. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonja, climbed the hill above her house in her impoverished town in Southeastern Ohio, to pick wild daffodils. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Amber flirts with her boyfriend and ignores her children Seth and Paige as they poke their cousin with a metal pole. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya hugs her aunt Leslie when her mother Amber, left, tries to get her attention. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Amber gets flustered after taking her three children off of her mother’s hands for a few minutes at the county fair. Although Amber is trying to be a bigger part of her children’s lives, she often can’t handle them. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya holds her neighbor’s cat next to her grandmother’s home. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya ran inside her house as a storm rolls in. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Lorrie gave her grandchildren their nightly medication before putting them to bed, she is the central care giver in their lives. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Lorrie tries to rock Seth and Paige to sleep. It can often take several hours to get all of the kids to bed. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonja scratched out Mommy and overwrote Grandma on this church hymn. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonja takes a selfie while on a trip with her family to a local park. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya Casto joined the Port Clinton, OH Marching Band. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Sonya Casto spent some time with her cousins in Port Clinton, OH. (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
These are engaging photos. Reminds me of JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, a story of the broken homes, families and promises in Appalachia. Work and sobriety will help these communities heal. I wish Sonya and the Casto’s well.
These are engaging photos. Reminds me of JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, a story of the broken homes, families and promises in Appalachia. Work and sobriety will help these communities heal. I wish Sonya and the Casto’s well.