Mother’s Day: Oonagh Bush and Charlotte Patmore’s Exploration of Mother Daughter Relationships

24 Jan

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My work has organically transcended into taking photographs of mothers, especially expectant and pregnant ones. Women fascinate me, and I am totally in awe of them: their emotional capacity, their strength and how their bodies can adapt and change. I think where my photography has taken me is also massively to do with the fact that my own mother died when I was twenty one.
Vivienne Morgan Chandler was her name – an actress, model and analogue photographer herself. I still use her old 35mm camera. She was the absolute light of my life; we were so close and I really leaned on her, for everything. Because of the lack of physical presence from my own mother, I feel on a subconscious level that this is why I have decided to photograph mothers.

I recognise and yearn for something in them: so reassuring, so nurturing and so tender. It’s really hard to navigate this world without a mum. I say that not only for anyone whose mother has passed, but also for anyone whose mother isn’t there, emotionally, or due to a mental illness or other circumstances. Both are just as tough. Having an absent parent is hard, but, on the other hand, I think mother/daughter relationships can be especially difficult too.

Photographing Charlotte is, of course, very different to photographing my usual clients. We have been friends for a while, so our relationship runs pretty deep. I remember when she called me to tell me she was pregnant, and we went to the doctors together. It was one of those moments I will never forget – I could feel everything was about to change. We documented her pregnancy throughout, so it’s really wild and such a gift that I get to photograph her with her daughter, now that she’s been born.

I see things in Charlotte that I realise my mother must have felt too, things I couldn’t acknowledge then. Her and her daughter’s relationship reminds me at times of mine and my own mother’s. There are memories that resurface when I watch them together. I feel like people don’t talk about this stuff enough: the pain and discomfort that can come with motherhood, or the lack of it.

It goes without saying that this is a very surreal time for everyone globally. However, I feel it’s important that we still take time to celebrate our mothers — all the different kinds, not only today, but every day. Here’s to them, how they raised us, what they taught us, and here's to thanking them for birthing us into this world, however wild and uncertain it may be.