Artist Statement - 2013

I have spent my career studying the unique shape of the pregnant woman. With my most recent series, I am studying the landscape created by this form. When the images are printed large, the form becomes foreign. Worthy of examination and discussion, this shape represents an area of the women's body that is surrounded by debate of ownership, degradation by toxic environments, and depravation of corporate fertility centers charging exorbitant fees for women who want to become pregnant.

Using mostly natural light and black and white film with no digital alteration, I have created two distinct bodies of work. The first is narrative and captures the subjects during their transformation to motherhood. The second is a radical departure from portraiture, removing the individual and framing the pregnant body as a new abstract landscape and language.

My goal is to present the diverse shapes and stories of pregnancy, to give them a place in visual history, and to employ this archetypal female form to spark conversations about contemporary western social issues surrounding the family.