We finish up on the ground floor of the Photographers’ Gallery, watching the huge screen above the stair well. It is showing a sequence of hundreds of different images of motherhood which collectively carry the title Motherlode. The gallery website says ‘Drawing on historical archives, stock images, contemporary media and the world wide web, the display reflects changes in the representation of motherhood through the history of photography and wider visual culture.’
Our eldest enjoys the magazine cover images of expectant celebrity mothers: high fashion bumps. She hasn’t imbibed quite enough celebrity culture to recognize any faces (apart from Victoria Beckham’s), but she responds to the particular finish of these women. Something about their gloss, the sheen they project for the camera, allows their images to slip frictionless across the huge screens. They are in their element.
Another set of images within Motherlode seem more dense, more abrasive. These are the images of Victorian babies. At first they seem to be sitting on oddly shaped and heavily upholstered chairs. The essay by Home Truth’s curator Susan Bright points out that it is not upholstery, but hidden maternity: each baby is sitting on its mother’s lap yet their mother is hidden, entirely covered head to toe, with a cloth giving the illusion that the baby is independent. Bright says that one of these ‘hidden mother’ images, together with a piece by artist Mary Kelly, were the two works that ‘gave birth to this exhibition.’
