Hidden Mother

Hidden Mother is a contemporary photographic series that draws inspiration from 19th-century studio portraits in which mothers were often concealed—covered by drapery or hidden behind furniture—to hold their children still during long exposure times. These historical images, strange and ghostlike, serve as metaphors for the invisibility of motherhood in both public and private life. In this body of work, I reinterpret the "hidden mother" trope in a modern context to explore the emotional, physical, and symbolic erasure of mothers. They feature real mothers—sometimes myself—partially concealed or absorbed into their surroundings, holding or supporting their children while remaining anonymous or fragmented. The series addresses the tension between presence and absence, care and invisibility, identity and dissolution. It reflects on how motherhood, though central to life, often remains unrecognized and undervalued. Through visual strategies of concealment, distortion, and ambiguity, Hidden Mother questions who is allowed to be seen, remembered, and acknowledged.