Visual Ethnographies
Motherhood Mediated Through Photography and Social Media
My MA thesis work - an essay and two media projects - examines the lived experiences of contemporary motherhood, taking Intensive Motherhood as the primary theoretical model through which motherhood is articulated, imagined, and contested. I sought to examine visual performances of Intensive Motherhood on social media, to understand how contemporary mothers share and consume snapshots and lifestyle images depicting the daily life of motherhood, to examine whether visual narratives of motherhood have changed due to social media, and to gain an understanding of how interacting with these images affects mothers’ sense of self and how they evaluate themselves as mothers. Through a short film and photography book, I both document my own transition into motherhood, and create a narrative of our family dynamic through a collaborative ethnographic short film.
Night Night (2024)
Synopsis: Yahya, a two year old boy, has one goal: to avoid bedtime for as long as possible. After a long day at school and a big dinner, he’s prepared to keep his parents awake and busy for hours. He splashes his mom while taking a bath, builds a block tower and knocks it down, cries for snacks, demands stuffed animals, tucks them into bed, and throws them onto the floor again. Eventually, his manic toddler energy gives way to sleep, and he drifts off to a lullaby.
But it’s not “night night” yet for Mama: there are still dishes to clean and work to catch up on. Funny and heartfelt, one family’s evening routine portrays the exhausting but fleeting experience of parenting young children, while highlighting the usually invisible work of mothers.
BECAUSE THE TREES KNOW ME (2017)
Newcomers to Germany talk about their experiences through the sentimental objects they carried with them. A sensory exploration of home and memory, stories about these objects tell how people stay connected to people and places after being uprooted from home. Produced with Mariana Duarte and Kanny Li as part of my graduate work in the MA Visual Anthropology program at the University of Münster.