The beginning of matrescence (the process of becoming a mother) begins as a kind of black magic curiosity—movement under the skin, growing and forming at will, the hurricane of birth, the electricity of the letdown.

The Quickening explores the transformation and lived experience of a woman in her motherhood/matrescence and postpartum depression/anxiety. The work interrogates the under-represented transition of biological, psychological and social identity during a complex and yet ubiquitous phase of life. The Quickening traverses the sudden landslide of one woman’s known world and the subsequent moving through rubble as devastated and in love, she tries to make sense of what is left, and ends with a slow rebuild of the new territory of becoming a mother.

The Quickening is a Centre for Contemporary Photography touring exhibition and an official exhibition of PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography.