Landscapes of Mothering: Creating Maternal Identity Through Story

Abstract

This creative dissertation is comprised of a photographic exhibit entitled “Landscapes of Mothering” and a scholarly apparatus that situates the exhibition in the evolution of contemporary photography theories. The photographic exhibit is an illustration of my lived maternal experience which has created my identity as a mother, consisting of eight large-scale digital prints. The accompanying chapters examine maternal feminism, the formation of maternal identity in novels and photographs, and the creation of meaning in a post-documentary culture.