Public Story
In Waiting
Summary
„In Waiting” aims to capture the anxieties and joys of pregnancy and first-time parenthood during the coronavirus pandemic. I found out I was expecting in April 2020, a month into the national lockdown. With our families back in Poland, the pregnancy became an intimate experience I shared with my husband. Limited mostly to the space of our apartment, I turned the camera on us. I began documenting our lives in this transformative moment, and I have continued doing so with the arrival of our daughter. I hope to show the accidental poetry of everyday life through the eyes of a mother.
Something that often gets forgotten when a firstborn comes into this world, is that it is not only the birth of a child, but also of a mother. Riddled with doubts and fears, it is a metamorphic experience for the whole family - changing the relationship dynamic and the way we look at our own parents.
Pregnancy is a time of endless anticipation that abruptly ends with the child’s arrival. „In Waiting” focuses on the period of my life when everything else seemed to be on hold. Since we were initially unable to travel from London to see our families in Poland, the pregnancy became an intimate experience I shared with my husband. Limited mostly to the space of our apartment, I turned the camera on us. I began documenting our lives in this transformative moment, and I have continued doing so with the arrival of our daughter.
The collision of light and shadow plays a central role in this project, highlighting the joys and anxieties that come with the first-time motherhood. Family portraits are tangled with still lifes of mundane parental reality - groceries dumped in a hurry on the table, cabbage leaves to for relieving mastitis, and various landscapes from daily walks. Working on this series has turned into a therapeutic experience, giving me an opportunity to process things that were happening around me - the uncertainty of the pandemic, and the messy rawness of parenthood. Through the lens of first-time motherhood, the series explores the universal themes of identity, belonging, and self-discovery, offering a poignant and honest look at the transformative experience of becoming a parent.
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