milk and tears

"milk and tears" is a series of salted paper prints, made with my own breastmilk, speaking to the experience of new motherhood. Images of my son reference a legacy of classical sculpture and the intimacy of parenthood, and are complimented by still lifes of balanced blocks that serve as a metaphor for our societal ideal of trying to balance our work and home lives to "have it all." The prints display a wide-range of color and tonal discrepancies, reminding us that our bodies are not machines, but imperfect organisms. While salt printing is one of the oldest known photographic processes, using breastmilk as the salting solution in this work redefines the process in a contemporary context and literally adds my own bodily labor to the print, replicating the labor and sacrifice of parenthood. It also interjects a uniquely feminist narrative into this historical process.