September is the Cruellest Month

These portraits started during the summer of 2010 when I came to the stark realisation that my children are growing up and to a point, away from me, and that time passes and is never recaptured – we are only left with memories and photographs. The images are taken on a 4x5 large format camera, using instant black and white film that requires me to slow down, to observe, allowing us to collaborate as mother and child. It is a very intimate, intense process. I wanted to capture moments of our school holidays together whether it be in play, at the mountains, at the sea, moments of contemplation, sleeping, sulking … moments that don’t necessarily record the act but will trigger the memory and emotion we felt in years to come when we look back and hold these images in our hand. I am photographing for the future as well as the present. Why “September is the Cruellest Month”? Because it is the time when I have to let my children go back out into the world again without me. The summer holiday is now over. It’s a month that, for me, symbolises the passing of time. Back to school, back to their clubs, back to routine, progressing, moving on. Something we all embrace and want for them, but secretly wanting to hold back time a little bit longer. We can’t stop time but we can freeze it for a split second in our images