Arden's View
personal works
Arden's View (Aged 2 - 3)
2023 - 24
Digital portraits taken by my two year old son
This series of portraits of me were taken by my two - three year old son between 2023 - 24 on a cheap digital camera my partner and I bought him for Christmas in 2022. He sporadically picks it up and takes photos of his favourite toys; objects around the house; his friends and family and us - his mother and father.
I was struck by these portraits of myself in many ways. The directness of my own child's view of me is both profound and discomforting - forcing me to look at my least public self. The camera flash gives them a nostalgic feel, as if I am looking at photos of my own mother from the early 90s.
The photo evidence of domestic motherhood sits at odds with how motherhood is often shared on social media - from 'momfluencers' using their perfectly dressed children as part of their revenue streams, to the intensity of birth experiences. These images are neither here nor there - they are just daily life at unflattering angles, with love, boredom, anger, joy and contentment running through this new male gaze of my son to me.
Presented in a photo album, 50 portraits sit side by side - the profound recalibration of the mother-identity shift shared in a mundanely familiar format.