The best stories are the ones that come from a personal connection or an experience that resonates with something in our core of understanding. British photographer, Jacqueline McCullough, has a new body of work, So Much Past, that comes from her personal experience as the daughter of a foster care giver. After recently graduating from the University of Brighton, UK with an Editorial Photography degree, she works predominantly investigating and documenting topics around children in care. “Photography gives me a voice that I don’t have with words. It allows me to tell stories.”

As the child of a foster parent, my life has been shaped and informed by an ever-changing family unit. This experience lies at the heart of my work.

This series explores various viewpoints of the care system. I felt a desire to seek out those surrounded by, involved in or working in the system to ask questions that I myself have found difficult to answer. I invited carers, social workers and young people involved with foster care to respond to a series of questions. The resulting portraits stem from the dialogue between the subject and myself.

The blackboard, layered with the remnants of others experiences, acts as a metaphor for the transient nature of the care system where a past can be wiped away, yet scratches and traces still remain.