Set against shifting landscapes, with glacial scenes and fields of browning plants, photographer Ahndraya Parlato’s new book, TIME TO KILL, examines what it means to age as a woman in a culture that equates beauty with youth and devotion with self-erasure. 

Using nature as a metaphor, the project combines portraits, landscapes, and still lifes—of plants, ice, domestic objects, and even weapons—arranged in ways that feel both intimate and disquieting. Interspersed throughout the book are letters addressed to an ambiguous recipient, creating a dialogue between the artist and an imagined witness.

Building on the visual language of her 2021 book, Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead, Parlato turns her lens toward bodily transformation, specifically that of motherhood. The work moves between vast outdoor spaces and interiors that feel compressed, mirroring the psychological push-and-pull between freedom and obligation. Throughout, Parlato draws on the natural world to consider how women are seen, and how they see themselves, as time alters the body and reshapes identity.