J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Diana Karklin
Episode #54, Summary
Diana Karklin explores maternal regret in a compilation of images and text based on interviews with nine mothers from seven countries.
Episode Notes
Undo Motherhood is a boxed set of soft-covered trifold booklets titled after the predominant feelings identified by regretful mothers: anger, fear, isolation, exhaustion, guilt, resignation and acceptance. Karklin’s investigation was driven by a single question: “If you knew then what you know now, would you have made a different choice?” Respectful, intimate imagery makes visible a continuum of ambivalence.
In this conversation, Diana discusses, among other things:
Ideology of motherhood
Collective imagination
Maternal reckoning
Multicultural expectations
Innovating approaches to achieve neutrality
Visually exploring vulnerability
The language of images
Dismantling narratives
Referenced in the episode
Singapore International Photography Festival
Elinor Carucci — Mother (2013)
Carmen Winant — My Birth (2018)
Sheila Heti — Motherhood (2018)
Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution by Adrienne Rich
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose
“Regretful Mothers” by Anne Kingston, Maclean’s
“Women who wish they weren’t mothers” by Diana Karklin, The Guardian
1854 Photography on Undo Motherhood, British Journal of Photography
Published by Schilt Publishing