The Holding Place
Emma O’Brien
PhotoIreland
English
Softcover
First Edition of 500
124 pages
260 x 320 mm
2023
ISBN 9781999739430
While balancing unpaid emotional and domestic labour with full-time paid work, Emma O’Brien placed her photographic practice on hold. It was an indulgence she couldn’t afford, Motherhood demanded this sacrifice. As her child grew, influenced by Matricentric Feminism, working with a feminist concept of intersubjectivity, “how to care for another and one’s self”, she began carving the time to explore her role as mother and artist. Photographing her every day, Emma celebrates mothering and calls out motherhood.
The Holding Place is a meditation on the physical, psychological and political landscape of Motherhood. The small world that is inhabited, the recurring daily routines, the scant time available, and the intimacy of the mother-child relationship all shape the work. Feminism has changed women’s life outside the home, but little has changed inside the home. In her work the personal and political blur, she hints at her simmering rage and frustration borne by the imbalances of motherhood while also proclaiming her contradictory feelings of love and devotion. She aims to show the value of caring and nurturing while exposing the patriarchal capitalist structures that impose an experience of entrapment on mothers. The work reveals that while motherhood undoubtedly gives something, it also takes something valuable away. Designed by Ángel Luis González Fernández.
(Source: https://emmaobrienphoto.com/projects/the-holding-place/)
About The Artist
Emma O’Brien is a graduate of The Griffith College BA in Photographic Media. Her photographic practice is concerned mainly with themes of family childhood and home, documenting the personal and the private, domestic landscapes, rural life, small towns and neighbourhoods.
emmaobrienphoto.com
(Source: https://emmaobrienphoto.com/about/)
About the Publisher
PhotoIreland grows the reputation of Irish artists globally through a 360 degree support system and platform for contemporary photography, activated through a diversity of projects. These include events such as PhotoIreland Festival and Halftone print fair amongst others; resources such as the PhotoIreland Collection, a specialised research library of photobooks, and Ireland’s Art Bookshop, The Library Project; via publishing with projects such as OVER Journal and TLP Editions; professional development support through networking and consultancy opportunities; and empowering early and mid-career photographers via our international partnerships, most relevantly through Creative Europe co-funded platforms such as FUTURES and Parallel.
https://photoireland.org/
(Source: https://photoireland.org/about-photoireland/)
