Friday, November 12, 2010

Can you capture motherhood on film?- updated


This photo is part of a personal project I started after M the princess was born.

I've been obsessively trying to capture that je ne sais quoi that happens between the body of a child and his/ her caretakers. There are no inhibitions, there are no boundaries. It's like the two bodies can speak to each other directly. This is generally more evident when they are babies, but it carries on until adolescence brings out all the self awareness and breaks that bond.

Little things almost invisible to the eye: the placement of the hands, using the mother's leg as a barrier for protection from the world, a protective hand that has made it's way to the child while the mother's awareness lies entirely somewhere else.

I'm trying to find physical evidence of that bond that is so often discussed and talked about.

Have you seen it? do you have ideas as to where or how I can find it?

PS you can find more photos from the series here 

2 comments:

Diana said...

That bond is beautifully capture on this picture.

Pippa said...

Beautiful picture - would love to explore these ideas further - we're in the early stages of a project that encourages mums to be creative, and I wonder if this might be one of the 'story-tasks' we could encourage mums to try and explore - could they capture their own physical connection somehow? Very aware of it myself as 7 weeks till my second child comes. Let me know @pipbest if that sounds at all interesting or not! Pippa