The Song of Psalms
The Song of Psalms is Kollin’s first documentary project. Psalms is a three-year-old boy who, with his two sisters, is being raised by their maternal grandmother, Dawn. His story is all too familiar for regions struck by the opioid crisis, unemployment, and a lack of opportunities. Psalms’ mother, Devin, is battling bipolar disease and a gripping addiction and keeps disappearing out of Psalm’s life, sometimes for months at a time. His father, Sean, just got out of jail after serving two years and from now on wants to give his best for his only son. Many would call it a not-ideal family, and yet they represent reality for thousands of people. Their voices are often judged, labeled and ignored. As a community, they are not acknowledged in any positive way. Kids born into these complex families and surroundings battle with a difficult childhood and learn to feel shame about being different from an early age. In our collective unwillingness to look at the existing root cause of the problems, we become accomplices to the crimes of ignorance and indifference, feeding into a perpetual cycle of poverty with its life-long traumas and detriments. Psalms is too young to understand these complexities of life, but he is old enough to desire the feeling of belonging to his family and society.  Kollin believes that while we don’t choose the circumstances we are born into, in a healthy and well-functioning community every child gets an equal chance to reach their full potential and become a big “tree”. To believe is to do things differently, sometimes beginning in our mindset and later taking steps to change things for the better in our immediate surroundings.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Angelika Kollin (b. 1976) is an Estonian photographer currently based in Riverview, Florida. She is self-taught and engages with her passion for photography and art as a tool of exploration of interhuman connections, intimacy, and/or the absence of such. Angelika has spent the last eight years living in Ghana, Namibia and South Africa where she explored the same topic in a variety of different cultures and economic conditions. It strengthened her belief that despite many circumstances in life, the one thing that shapes us the most is our relationship with our parents. Through intense artistic evolution, she has arrived at her current projects You Are My Mother / Father and The Song of Psalms.

Angelika’s awards and exhibitions include: Lensculture portrait finalist (2022); Open Call Finalist Nordic Village 2021 / Helsinki Photo Festival, Helsinki, Finland. BIFA 1st place portfolio, Budapest, HU (2021); All About Photo magazine 2nd place B&W category (2021); LensCulture Journey 1st place single image (2020); TIFA Tokyo International Foto Award Silver, fine art nudes series category (2020); TIFA Tokyo International Foto Award Bronze, fine art nudes single image (2020); IPA International Photo Award 1st place, fine art category (2020); IPA International Photo Award 3rd place, portrait category (2020); BIFA Silver, fine art nudes series category, Budapest, HU (2020); ND Awards honorable mention in fine art nudes category (2020); Lucie Foundation open call finalist (2020); PHmuseum Mobile Prize finalist (2020); The Independent Photographer 1st place portrait (2020);  The Independent Photographer 1st place portrait (2019); and  Tokyo International Foto Award Gold, fine art nudes (2019).