mother of isolation

Getting more familiar with the autistic children’s mothers and understanding their painful anonymity, made me to understand their challenges more deeply. As a family member who has the most interaction with and is closest to such children, these mothers experience a higher level of stress and psycho

Getting more familiar with the autistic children’s mothers and understanding their painful anonymity, made me to understand their challenges more deeply. As a family member who has the most interaction with and is closest to such children, these mothers experience a higher level of stress and psychological trauma. The lack of general knowledge in Iran, people’s biases, attributing the behaviors of these children to the upbringing methods used by their mothers and not to the neurological nature of this disorder, and the lack of necessary financial support from Iran government have been a starting point for mothers’ isolation. Part of the photos of this project has been taken by the mothers of three children with autism – housewives (Shabnam, Fahimeh and Neda) from low-income communities whose photos are reflective of the low quality of their mobile phones. Taking photos of everyday life with their phones, they frankly shared with me their sorrows, joys, and fears without having any background in the rules of photography or graphics. This lack of any background turned out to be a strength that made them each have rules of photography or graphics and this crudity turned out to be a strength that made them each have their own special visual narrative and deal with it through their own special feeling. I didn’t crop or edit the photos of these mothers and I want to show them as they are, without intervening in the way these mothers are being viewed. They perceive mobile photography as a strange and unique experience; an experience that made them get closer to their children.