Big Bear, Little Feet, reflects a more in-depth approach to working in sustainable and regenerative ways with photography, whilst also working, practically, as a mother. This work is not about motherhood, as such, but it is more about how I can be a mum and make art at the same time. As someone who is used to working collaboratively with many people, this is an intimate collaboration between myself and my toddler, as we go on bear hunts in the green common and local river Mersey.
These green spaces were the same areas I took daily walks in during the lockdown, which was also when I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I literally and emotionally witnessed the growth of life through my body and my surroundings, as I walked within the local landscape. This green common will now and forever hold a particular place in my mind. Based on my son’s favourite book (we’re going on a bear hunt), we go out on weekends, laying out of date photographic paper in around the green spaces, submerged in a field of grass, muddy parts of the pond, or pinned to trees. We come back days or weeks later to see to collect the prints and what tracks nature (or that elusive bear) may have left behind.
Nature does its thing, and what is left is the lumen prints you see. I am also testing out processing my own black and white film with coffee based developers with my son then takes the pictures, some of which are then double exposed as we return to the site over the year. There is an audio piece which also accompanies the prints, which includes the sounds of 'bear hunts' we've been on together over this time. You can listen to the audio file HERE
