honorable mention
Claudia Pawlak canada
title
Most Importantly, Love Your Mother
It is through sacrifice I know my mother. I know her through the familial structures of mother-to-child relationship, and through the unconditional love she has provided me with as her daughter. I have witnessed a woman choosing to place the needs of her children before her own, living in her children, and through her children.
Our relationship has reached a critical shift, and I am finding that as it transforms from structured codependency to two self-sustaining women, I feel I have done my mother a disservice. Guilt and loss resonate within both of us, reinstating intergenerational tension. We are learning to navigate repercussions of sacrifice as a woman fulfilling gender-based responsibilities in the domestic space. We are learning how to heal through sacrifice, just the same as her mother did, and her own mother before her. In doing so, I am collaborating with her not only as a daughter, but as women alongside each other.
The project has been executed on 120 film. By shooting on film, I became very selective about which shots were worth taking, and I was very aware of how the image would look on film. It also reflected on the relationship building and trust involved with my mother and I working together.
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entry description
Most Importantly, Love Your MotherIt is through sacrifice I know my mother. I know her through the familial structures of mother-to-child relationship, and through the unconditional love she has provided me with as her daughter. I have witnessed a woman choosing to place the needs of her children before her own, living in her children, and through her children.
Our relationship has reached a critical shift, and I am finding that as it transforms from structured codependency to two self-sustaining women, I feel I have done my mother a disservice. Guilt and loss resonate within both of us, reinstating intergenerational tension. We are learning to navigate repercussions of sacrifice as a woman fulfilling gender-based responsibilities in the domestic space. We are learning how to heal through sacrifice, just the same as her mother did, and her own mother before her. In doing so, I am collaborating with her not only as a daughter, but as women alongside each other.
The project has been executed on 120 film. By shooting on film, I became very selective about which shots were worth taking, and I was very aware of how the image would look on film. It also reflected on the relationship building and trust involved with my mother and I working together.
about the photographer
Claudia Pawlak is a photographer from Kingston, Ontario. She explores the decisive moment in her work by implementing themes of displacement, familiarity, and identity. She works in both analog and digital mediums, shooting on 35mm and 120mm film to document personal projects, and shooting digitally for commercial work. By May 2019, she will have completed her Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography at Ryerson University.back to gallery
