During the first lockdown, when I became a mother, I decided to document my real and mental world. Through photographic layers, I question the syrupy myth of the happiness of being a mother.

How is the mother-child relationship built? Become a mother? Not as obvious as the discourse endlessly rehashed by society would have us believe. If the birth is desired, the physical and psychological upheavals that surround it are far from being expected… or even audible. Because how can we explain a feeling that no one talks about, not even literature. It is up to each woman, torn between freedom and mothering, to find her balance.

I show the bond that is forged between baby and myself.

Veronique L’Hoste | artist