3600 Hours

Stuck in my chair resentfully pumping, I picked up my camera and photographed the only place I wanted to be: my bed.

Relenting to convenience, I used point and shoot cameras set to auto and loaded with black and white film. I sought to document the truth: I am 37. I have just birthed my fifth child. She has Down Syndrome. The pregnancy was unwanted. I pump and feed. Pump and feed. Pump and …. this is MY life.

At first, postpartum child care was the forefront of my subject matter —feeding and keeping my child alive. As weeks turned into months, more entered the frame. My children became older siblings. I photpgrahed, received the scnas, and observed what I shot. Looking down, the subject matter became myself. MY life. Imagery gifted me the compassion necessary to see the beauty I could not see while I suffered at the breast pump. As Edna began to laugh and smile and grow, I did too.

In the tiny, often-dark, plugged-in corner of my bedroom, to the rythm of the pump, we became a family of seven. Resentment softened and transformed into revelation. the bed once again became a place of rest instead of pain. Giving a window into the world of postpartum motherhood, 3600 Hours invites you to contemplate the cohabitation of beauty and sorrow in our lives.