| PUMPING | 2019 - 2020
Insignificant or afterthought dingy spaces are the places many working mothers often found themselves pumping milk in before designated spaces were made accessible in the workplace and in public spaces. Supply closets, old locker rooms with flickering lights, storage rooms, bathroom stalls or unauthorized spaces are where we produced milk.
In 2019-2020, I became an observer and visual storyteller to various pumping sessions throughout the Baltimore area. Using painting, digital photography, medium format film and alternative processes, environmental portraits were captured to honor these subjects' discomfort, isolation and vulnerability. Further anxiety surrounding the pressures of producing enough breastmilk itself and the hold it has on the mother was explored through using film souping with breastmilk. Surrendering to the process of what happens to the photograph as a result of the milk soup honored the loss of control within milk production for pumping mothers and the obsession over supply and demand.
Denied a Space (at the Cylburn Arboretum), Oil & Charcoal on Canvas, 32 x 32 inches, 2020020
Bambi Galore (Post Drag Show), Baltimore, MD, Oil & Charcoal on Canvas, 34 x 34 inches, 2020s, 2020
Falling Short, 120 Film Cooked & Processed in Breast Milk, 2020
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the construction worker in the parking garage Natalie, Columbia, MD, Yashica-D / 120 Portra, 2019 the school teacher pumping session
grading, checking emails and catching up on paperwork Jackie, Public School, Digital, 2019 she pumped in the dressing room at work
in between shows this was her final session. Genevieve, Single Carrot Theater, Digital, 2019 she secretly pumped in an old locker room
lights flickering, left behinds strewn about packets of seeds after they denied her a space Angie (became a Master Gardener anyways), Cylburn Arboretum, Digital, 2019 |
the drag queen post show pump Bambi Galore, Baltimore, MD, Digital the car pumper
while baby sleeps in the back seat. Heather, Route 108, MD, Digital, 2019 she pumped in her office
entering data, answering calls eating her lunch doing it all. Autumn (the chemist), Johns Hopkins Laboratory, Digital, 2019 she pumps at the vanity of her upstairs hallway while preparing her powerpoint presentations working and grinding away Meena, Columbia, MD, Digital, 2019 |
