The Murphy Peetz of Southern Street

Published 12/12/16

"If you just read about us—two middle aged, college educated parents working blue collar jobs, living in a gritty blue collar neighborhood, four dogs, two cats, two very unusual kids, both special ed students, one who is out LGBT, all living in under 1000 square feet—one might imagine a very different picture from what we really look like and how we really are."

I connected to Shawna Murphy through a mutual friend that spotted an Instagram photo I took of her with her daughters at a Martin Luther King Day rally. She was leading the older girl, holding a protest sign, by the hand while the younger child rode on her back. The visual stuck with me. In September I began photographing Shawna (a child-care provider), her husband Christian Peetz (a painter), and daughters Beezus and Minnow Murphy in Seattle's South Park neighborhood. From the start of the school year, and past the 2016 presidential election, I documented Shawna and Christian's progressive parenting style, and how the family showed up for their community in divisive times.