Women's Work
After I gave birth for the first time in 2012, the sudden shift in identity that came with motherhood was daunting. My little baby was like an extra arm, a constant thought.
But I was frightened by his potential to consume me, and I struggled to maintain a separate self. So I began to photograph other working mothers negotiating their entangled identities.
Each photo essay in this project, Women’s Work, documents a mother of young children at work, at home and in her social realm. These women are analogues of myself. They include a non-profit worker whose baby was born at home, a philanthropist who also prosecutes major crimes, and a painter who makes a conceptual artist’s artwork.
With love and ambivalence, my subjects seek to integrate these working and mothering selves. I am sustained by the stories of women also engaged in this difficult, beautiful work.
(Published by The New York Times, New York Magazine, PBS, Le Monde Diplomatique and Narratively)