“The Body Is Not A Thing was conceived during lockdown. Like many women with young children, I experienced a loss of autonomy. In America, where I was living, the appetite for regressive politics was growing. I felt frustrated with the unrelatable and sanitised imagery that dominates mainstream representations of motherhood. In the year Roe v. Wade was overturned, I traveled from my home, a small rural community in New England, to Los Angeles. I found myself drawn to the supposed duality of our sexual desire and our ability to give birth. I photographed actors, dancers, sex workers, and mothers. I thought I understood how to cast the female gaze. Later, as I reviewed the images, I found myself confronted by the enduring influence of the male gaze. I am forced to acknowledge the historical associations of female nudity, the provocation of shame, the influence of pornography, and internalised misogyny. Observing women intimately, interplaying sexuality and motherhood, is uncomfortable–but should it be?”

Credits: Concept development and production by Annabel Crook.