on being and bodies

(2021 - Present)


Photographing movement in the first half of 2021 has given me opportunities to observe different bodies. Combined with my reflection on the changes experienced by my own body and my mother’s in recent years, I wanted to explore the female body through photography.


During my research, I came across Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, a novel examining womanhood and the female body through the women characters in different stages of their lives. I was particularly impressed by a confrontation between a single mother and her teenage daughter, where the daughter asked her mom why she had given birth to her, if the daughter’s birth was to cause so much pain and the mother’s hatred towards her own body - to the extent that she sought breast implants. In this scene, the daughter and mother both cracked eggs over their bodies and it was in this mess that they reconciled.


I love the clever use of eggs as a symbol of life and women, of wholeness and fragility, of a cycle that crosses generation. Pain, I thought at the time, tinges so many aspects of women’s lives. It’s perhaps similar for athletes - pain and injuries often paint the backdrop of their movement.


But always, there is the courage to go on, despite the pain.


This series began with a professional dancer who reconstructed her ACL a few months before the shoot. She was gradually recovering and learning to work with this new body that required more attention and care.


Knowing I want to celebrate the diversity and multitude of female experiences, I’ve been working with women older than 30 years old - Youth in women is championed by our media yet positive, honest portrayal of “middle-aged and older women” is lacking.

on being and bodies

(2021 - Present)


Photographing movement in the first half of 2021 has given me opportunities to observe different bodies. Combined with my reflection on the changes experienced by my own body and my mother’s in recent years, I wanted to explore the female body through photography.


During my research, I came across Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, a novel examining womanhood and the female body through the women characters in different stages of their lives. I was particularly impressed by a confrontation between a single mother and her teenage daughter, where the daughter asked her mom why she had given birth to her, if the daughter’s birth was to cause so much pain and the mother’s hatred towards her own body - to the extent that she sought breast implants. In this scene, the daughter and mother both cracked eggs over their bodies and it was in this mess that they reconciled.


I love the clever use of eggs as a symbol of life and women, of wholeness and fragility, of a cycle that crosses generation. Pain, I thought at the time, tinges so many aspects of women’s lives. It’s perhaps similar for athletes - pain and injuries often paint the backdrop of their movement.


But always, there is the courage to go on, despite the pain.


This series began with a professional dancer who reconstructed her ACL a few months before the shoot. She was gradually recovering and learning to work with this new body that required more attention and care.


Knowing I want to celebrate the diversity and multitude of female experiences, I’ve been working with women older than 30 years old - Youth in women is championed by our media yet positive, honest portrayal of “middle-aged and older women” is lacking.

Using Format