Not Without My Pillow is a personal study of my childhood focusing on educational spaces.

When I was little, I had a very big obsession with my pillow. It was a lumpy, white Ikea pillow with a white and blue plaid cover. I took it everywhere with me—on trips, to sleepovers, or even to school. Once I hit puberty, I started leaving my pillow at home and although I was aware of it and it still made me sad, I knew it had to stop at some point. 

To “grow up,” to me, meant to care less about my pillow and leaving it home when I went away. That is why the title of this book is Not Without My Pillow.

I spent a month revisiting my childhood. I went back to my old preschool, high school, and sixth form college (where I spent my junior and senior year of high school), documenting the spaces in which I used to spend so many days of the year.

I divided my work into three sections: interior photography, still lives, and portraits. 

For the interiors, I took pictures of the classrooms, the recess area, the gym, the cantine, and such.

For the portraits, I contacted the teachers and staff I felt had impacted me the most and took their portraits.

Lastly, for the still lives, I collected all of the objects related to my childhood that I could find at home. I put them together and divided them into the categories of preschool, high school, and sixth form, and took pictures of the collections. The objects vary from surgical knives to alcohol to doll heads.