“The Body Is Not A Thing was conceived during lockdown. Like many women with young children, I experienced a loss of autonomy. In America, where I was living, the appetite for regressive politics was growing. I felt frustrated with the unrelatable and sanitised imagery that dominates mainstream representations of motherhood. In the year Roe v. Wade was overturned, I traveled from my home, a small rural community in New England, to Los Angeles. I found myself drawn to the supposed duality of our sexual desire and our ability to give birth. I photographed actors, dancers, sex workers, and mothers. I thought I understood how to cast the female gaze. Later, as I reviewed the images, I found myself confronted by the enduring influence of the male gaze. I am forced to acknowledge the historical associations of female nudity, the provocation of shame, the influence of pornography, and internalised misogyny. Observing women intimately, interplaying sexuality and motherhood, is uncomfortable–but should it be?”
Credits: Concept development and production by Annabel Crook.
Madeleine Morlet is an Australian-born British-American artist and mother. Her photographic work draws on personal experiences to create images that are intimate in tone, observant of beauty, and rich in narrative. Her practice questions the power dynamics inherent in photography and its limitations. She is particularly interested in the concept of the female gaze, especially as it relates to motherhood and sexuality.
