IAMBREASTFEEDING – July 2013 / July 2015

iamBreastfeeding is a participatory project of mothers in North West Lancashire, England, who were invited to have their portrait taken whilst breastfeeding, in their chosen environment, 57 mothers took part.  This is an area that covers demographic extremities and yet shares commonality for having some of the lowest breastfeeding rates within the United Kingdom.

In this project the mothers take ownership of their communication with the audience through eye contact. Mothers chose their own location, attire and if any other persons were present in the portrait. This was accompanied by an informal interview discussing experiences of breastfeeding and motherhood.

My own breastfeeding and motherhood experience led me through a surge of emotions and thoughts. I was not prepared and it led me to question from where my ideas and expectations had come from. I perceived that our visual culture is saturated with constructed ideas of motherhood, through television, magazines, celebraty and in many current western societies subject to labelling and aggressive commercial domination. These ideas can become a real expectation for many women when experiencing motherhood; consequently reality takes a cultural shift. This influence has proved dangerous to some rearing practices that have carried us through our existence in human modernity, notably breastfeeding.

I worked closely with the charity organisation, The Breastfeeding Network (BfN). The BfN aims to be an independent source of peer support and information for breastfeeding women and others.  This relationship was to ensure ethical works that would not damage or undermine breastfeeding. 

The work has been exhibited in a family friendly central location of North West Lancashire, The Solaris Centre, Blackpool.