Within the Bittersweet
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Dates2018 - Ongoing
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Author
The photographs in my series Within the Bittersweet draw on the depths of familial connection found in motherhood. They also consider the impossible task of sheltering one’s children from environmental threats, including the entwined issues of toxic chemical pollution and climate change. I’ve made the images as I raise my daughters in and around our West Alabama home. This region has magnificent natural beauty and serene communities filled with lush gardens. Like many places, it is also interlaced with sites that emit industrial pollution. These sites are often hidden from public view but have a particularly acute impact on developing children for whom the short and long-term consequences of environmental contamination will be most felt. The series seeks to communicate my experiences during the brief, bittersweet period of parenthood spent with young children—and also to consider the splendor of a life lived on a planet teetering toward crisis.