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, and 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 a mother and artist. Finding the quiet moments between the intense days of working and mothering she began to photograph their everyday.

The Holding Place is a meditation on the physical, psychological, and political landscape of Motherhood. The small world they inhabit, the recurring daily routines, the scant time available, and the intimacy of the mother-child relationship all shape the work. In The Holding Place, the personal and political blur as the artist engages in a raw and honest dialogue, exploring the emotional complexities and challenges of motherhood.

124 pages, 26 32 cm, softcover, PhotoIreland (Dublin).