Le Beau Ventre

The title appears in French because it was in France that the series was born. Beau meaning beautiful but also big, and ventre, the belly or abdomen. The series of 26 black and white photographs, mostly from Polaroid 665 negatives and also 35mm and 6x6cm film, began with a self-portrait. I was even a bit disappointed when the day came that I couldn't go on recording the extraordinary state of my body. An ephemeral event of nature like a spectacular sunset or a rainbow pleads to be registered. The birth of my daughter marked the end of the belly and the beginning of caring for the child, oddly, as if the two conditions had little to do with one another. 

My friends and sister were then asking me to memorialize their last month of pregnancy. Later I looked for expectant friends of friends who wanted to pose. It was all like a continuation of the first self portraits in that I was interested in portraying how it feels to have this new life growing inside: still, in the midst of daily bustle, like being the whole world, and connected suddenly to all other mother's on earth and to the cycle of generations past and present.