In 2021, my first child was born. COVID restrictions were still in place, and my German family was unable to travel to Australia. I had moved to Brisbane only two years prior. A short 16 months after giving birth to my daughter, my second child was born. The first three years of parenting felt like a whirlwind. 

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Life with two under two felt overwhelming and messy. It was a stark change to the life I had led before kids. My life revolved primarily around the family home. These images give an intimate and authentic insight into the chaos, mood swings and intense beauty of raising little children. 

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The word Heimat, German for home, encapsulates a sense of belonging. It can refer to one's place of birth or the place where one feels at home. This series poses questions of what it means to feel at home. Whilst I was making a home for my children, in this unfamiliar place, I also felt an ever-present sense of longing for my home in Germany. 

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Treating each image as a precious curiosity, I arranged my selection into six categories. Each category encapsulates a different reality of the post-partum experience.

 

The prints are neatly arranged in Perspex boxes, akin to a collector’s cabinet. Each picture is pinned onto the backing board like a preserved butterfly.  The series is a poetic record of rupture, reinvention, isolation, and resilience.

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