The Lineage of Our Making.

Visual Collections of Motherhood // Toledo, OH // 2023-2024

A portrait study.

I cannot find nor fathom many words that I feel fully capture the sentiment of what this project means to me. Motherhood—a heaving, an unbecoming, a breaking, a baptizing, a divine renewal. To have captured these moments through my lens, and to have woven together these narratives of mothering that myself and these other women have lived (and are still living)—it's transformative in ways I cannot explain. Looking back on these visual collections as I thread this project together, I am deeply overwhelmed. Because this is motherhood in its truest form—the real, the raw, the vulnerable, the emotional, the grit-filled. This is all its glory.

This project not only challenged me as a mother, but as a visual storyteller as well. Looking back over all these images, I can only have a posture of gratitude. Though there are areas in which I wish I did better when it came to visually documenting motherhood, though there are moments I wish I captured and though I wish my photography work itself was at a better level than what is shown to you right now, I remind myself that I took my first step into this realm—and it is only the beginning. There is absolutely no way I could have been perfect on the first try. But if I try and try again, if I fail and get back up and keep on going, then what does that say about the faith that I have in myself to get to where I long to be?

From the genesis of this study, there was no other purpose than for it to serve as my testimony, and as the testimonies of every mother captured. This visual synopsis was meant to show truth of sacrifice and surrender. And while it did just that, it also did so much more. I can let out a deep breath, release my exhale to the wind, in knowing that this portion of my work is fulfilled. I have given this project so much of me, and in no way am I left empty from what I offered to bring this to life. These stories, these mothers, poured into me in more ways than one. I am full. I am fed.

God gave me this vision, and my willingness to do the work—along with every mother's willingness to open up her space and share her story—is what brought this project to fruition. And these visual collections are proof of the divine experience of motherhood.

This project is partially funded by an Arts Commission Accelerator Grant made possible through support from Promedica, the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and other generous supporters.