Anastasia Sierra
MFA ’26 Photography
The Witching Hour
I become a mother and stop sleeping through the night. Years go by, my child sleeps soundly in his bed but I still wake at every noise. My father comes to live with us and suddenly, I am a mother to everyone. As I drift off to sleep I can no longer tell my dreams from reality. In one nightmare my father tells me he’s only got two weeks to live. In another, I am late to pick up my son from school and never see him again. I am afraid of monsters, but I move towards them: we circle each other until I realize they are just as afraid of me as I am of them.
My images follow the logic of dreams, where we are trapped in a strange colorful world, playing an endless game of hide-and-seek in a labyrinth of love and fear, knowing there is no way to escape but to wake up.
This work meditates on the emotional landscape of motherhood and parent–child relationships, where tenderness, intimacy, and play entwine with guilt, frustration, and a constant sense of what could be lost.
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Anastasia Sierra is a photographer based in Cambridge, MA. Her work investigates the psychological complexities of motherhood, womanhood, and the domestic sphere, revealing profound vulnerability inherent in intergenerational bonds. Sierra’s photographs have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Danforth Art Museum, Emerson Contemporary and Panopticon Gallery. She is the recipient of a 2026 LensCulture Art Photography Award, was named a 2025 Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 finalist.
