I have recently begun work on a new photographic series titled Mother.  Inspired by the various real and/or potential experiences of feeling judged, restricted or discriminated against due to my own status as a mother I am trying to visually capture other women’s experiences through this project. I came up with the concept of using hazard tape to highlight the act of transgression against which society rails. My first image is of a mother breast feeding her toddler, an act that has recently sparked divisive debate in mainstream media following the Time magazine cover. The second image in the series features a mother reclaiming the bikini for the first time in her ‘post baby body’, a reflection of the pressure women feel to attain the perfect body - an ideal increasingly unattainable following pregnancy.

Danielle Smelter, Mother #1, 2015