Bittersweet

“Bittersweet” is a body of work about the conflicting emotions of motherhood – the love, the tenderness, the fears, the loss of self, the loneliness. In this series I collaborate with my young son to escape the chaos of our daily lives by creating a warm and colorful world of my own. I use light and shadow as a metaphor for the different dimensions of life–what we foreground and the things that hide in the shadows. I spent the early years wanting more time to myself, not having enough distance from the events of our daily lives to appreciate them. As my son gets older, the anxiety about him growing up and wanting more distance creeps in. I make these photographs to remember his chubby thighs and golden hair, and what it’s like to touch his skin and feel the weight of his body while I can still carry him. I photograph our love and my nightmares, with a superstitious hope that my fears won’t materialize if I spell them out in my photographs.