Which plants, animals, and objects do we share our homes with? And what does it mean to live together? In her series In the Mother Tongue, Lola Pertsowsky invites us to see domestic life and everyday routines through a new lens.

Pertsowsky photographs inside her mother’s home, a place teeming with life: a fly on the breakfast leftovers, dishes waiting to be washed, a half-eaten pat of butter, a smartphone, a colony of ants. All coexist under the same roof.

While we design objects for our own convenience, those very objects shape us in return. Pertsowsky’s camera circles around its subjects. Rather than documenting them, she seeks to establish a relationship with what she photographs.

Objects, plants, and animals that often go unnoticed all receive the same careful attention. Pertsowsky looks—and then looks again. Seeing becomes an exercise in itself, with repetition as the key to learning how to truly observe.

Artists: Lola Pertsowsky