Why Mums are Missing from Family Photos. New Book 'Mums In View' reveals new insight.

This book is for anyone who is a mother, has a mother, or knows a mother. It will take you into a look at family photography with the mother as the subject - a somewhat foreign notion when we consider family photography as mostly focused on the children. It will open the way for mothers to self examine their participation in photographs, and others' participation in capturing the mothers around them. It is a thought provoking read with a powerful message for anyone and everyone.

Author Justine Brentnall states that this book was the culmination of a year long research. It started by her noticing a thought she kept having that circled every now and then over the years, and that inevitably kept coming back until she paid attention to it. "I would think to myself, or occasionally say to my family - 'there are no decent photos of me because I’m always the one taking them of you', or my favourite - 'if I died tomorrow you have no nice photos of me for the funeral book'."

The timing became right for Justine to begin exploring this issue on a much deeper level. She states 'once I started my research, I was blown away by the amount of other mothers I found who were saying the same thing. In my research I identified that first, there is a trend of mothers from all age groups who acknowledge that there are hardly any photos of them because they are always the one behind the camera, and that second, there were reasons as to why this is happening'. Justine's research looked at historical issues around women and culture, and personal mythology regarding photographs, to gain a deeper understanding of the issue and the impact that mothers missing from photos has on us as individuals and as a society. Notably, through understanding the importance of why mothers should be in photos more often, or at least to similar proportion to the rest of the family, she was able to identify ways we can address this, with number one being to shine a light on the topic and get the conversation happening, and the idea of creating the book began.

The book features candid images of 5 different mothers intertwined in a fascinating read that teaches us to consider what we photograph on a daily basis in a whole new way. 

Justine's book is entirely self produced, and self published through her sister brand Arty Crow Design Studio. It is available now at www.justinebrentnall.com.au.