Photographer Documents Time Spent with Her Stepdaughter ‘Every Other Friday’

Perhaps some of us can relate to Dublin-based photographer Mandy O’ Neill’s series Every Second Friday—the title triggering the memory. In it, she documents her partner’s daughter, who he picks up every other Friday for the weekend. The visits are short, and O’Neill explores the expectation that they be filled with activity, fun—the best use of time. She says “this does not necessitate anything particularly special, and the everyday takes on a new significance, as it is the time together that is key. Nondescript spaces become alien forests, fairy mountains or castles. Favorite toys and objects take up temporary residence.”

We are taken along family outings, observing the nuanced moments between father, daughter, and O’Neill, who says, “I sometimes feel like the outsider in this family set up, and I think that taking photographs together was an unconscious way of forming some kind of bond with his daughter that allowed me into her world.” Apart from O’Neill’s personal touch, the work is a look at the modern family while capturing that collective feeling of childhood memory.

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