Full-colour print edition of our fourth issue of The Vault. 

Without the societal scrutiny that romantic relationships are often saddled with, friendships have the possibility to exist unlabelled and uncategorized. We lack the terms for friends who have supplemented the caregiving of a parent, the closeness of a sibling. Should we have to map the boundaries of where a friendship can shift? If friendships can tread unforeseen territory, are we called to define what this looks like, or does this only make new kinds of intimacy unreachable to us?

It’s within us to create friendships that exist beyond definition, expansive yet wholly ours. With our permission, they can blur and mutate and coil around us with tenderness. In these worlds of our own, it’s for us to decide.

With writing from Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné, E. Hamilton, Masooma Hussain, Kyla Jamieson, Sarah Kabamba, and Shohana Sharmin Sicilia.

Illustrated by Mary Kirkpatprick, photography by Jessica Daneluk.