In the early days of portrait photography, photographers would use a variety of tools to keep people still for the long exposure times required to make a picture. When the subject was a child, mothers were often tasked with holding their young ones to keep them from fidgeting. But they were also supposed to stay out of the shot, so the mothers were hidden by lengths of dark fabric, or by other means. Nevertheless, an odd glimpse of face, arm, torso or skirt would frequently make its way into the final image.
For this episode of WexCast, we’ll share a recent artist talk at the Wex with artist and author Laura Larson in connection with the release of her book, "Hidden Mother," in which she draws out the parallels between the experiences of those partially obscured mothers in antique photographs and of women raising children today.
