The Impermanent Strip of Light

Project Statement:

When my son was an infant, I wished for time to speed up. The days were long and his needs were overwhelming. These photographs are an expression of the maternal psychological labor I experience in relation to my son. Staged tableaus depict my neuroses as fictions. Functioning as both document and metaphor, the images reference impermanence, loss, fear, and uncertainty.

As my son grows into new versions of himself, I now beg for time to slow. With a mixture of sentiment and anxiety, the control I bring to my image making feels necessary to wrestle with and to accept my son's independence. Time is a thief and photographs are a way to cope.

Bio:

Angela Shaffer is a photographer working to bring visibility to hidden aspects of mothering. In doing so she explores the psychology, vulnerability, and banality of motherhood. Angela was recently shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize 2022. Her work has been featured in exhibitions with Woman Made Gallery (IL), Spilt Milk Gallery (UK), The Artist/ Mother Podcast (TN), Arts Mill (WI), The University of Iowa (IA), and Art Saint Louis (MO). She was a 2021 Critical Mass Finalist with PhotoLucida and she has shared work through an Instagram Residency with DearArtists.  


Angela (b. 1983, Pennsylvania) received her B.S. in Art Education from Asbury University and was a High School Art Teacher for five years in Garrard County, KY. She currently lives in Columbia, MO where she is in her third year as an MFA candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Missouri’s School of Visual Studies.