Behind Glass

'Behind Glass' is a portrait series documenting 25 mothers and their children experiencing isolation in their homes during a period of enforced social distancing, to control the transmission of COVID-19 in Australia. I have built a practice investigating relationships between mother and child. In this series I explore my long-held fascination with photographing through windows to frame a subject – a process I have never felt is more poignant than now. At my home on Bundjalung Country in northern New South Wales, I – like so many parents – had been spending my days learning new rhythms with my two children at home. I am fascinated with the lightness and darkness of parenting in this time. Now alone, with the absence of external support and simultaneously never alone as we spend intense one on one time with our children. Behind glass, mother and child appear like living and breathing masterpieces – divine comedies of domesticity. Through this work I hope to make the invisible role of parenting in isolation visible: the deepest tenderness, tedium, quietude, love, frustration, fear and despair.'