These Raw Photos Show the Side of Breastfeeding You Don't Typically See
Breastfeeding is somehow still a "sensitive" topic among too many people. While the idea that some people find the act of a mother feeding her child disturbing or inappropriate in some way is disappointing (to put it mildly), the silver lining is that the "controversy" over it has inspired some seriously stunning photo projects aimed at de-stigmatizing and normalizing breastfeeding. From photos that celebrate extended breastfeeding to the "Fed Is Best" series aimed at ending mom-shaming over baby-feeding choices, photographers are hard at work presenting breastfeeding as the beautiful, natural thing it is.
But what about when it's not an entirely natural, Earth Mother-y act? That's the theme of photographer Leah DeVun's stunning and raw photo project, "In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."
Taking its name from the Walter Benjamin essay of cultural criticism, DeVun's project celebrates a form of nursing that isn't often centered in breastfeeding projects: pumping.
DeVun explained the purpose of her project in a statement on her website: "This series explores the medical technologies that assist women with breastfeeding. The plastic pumps, shields, tubes, and other devices commonly used by women underscore how technology augments and disrupts our sense of what bodies do 'naturally.' Cultural demands to succeed effortlessly and heroically at giving birth and nursing are generally hard to fulfill."
For the photographer, the idea of motherhood's supposed "effortlessness" was a personal one. When DeVun was pregnant, she expected to give birth naturally - but her body had other plans. "Because of health problems that I had while I was pregnant, my experience of pregnancy and giving birth was very medicalized," DeVun told A Child Grows In Brooklyn.
The photographer - who was living in Austin, Texas, at the time - said many of her friends had spoken of the virtues of a birth without medical intervention. "My experience was pretty much the opposite: I gave birth in a hospital hooked up to machines," she explained. "But instead of being depressed about the 'failure' of my body to give birth 'naturally,' I became interested in exploring how we think of pregnant and nursing bodies, and all their entanglements with what we might call the technological and artificial."
That line of thinking led to the creation of "In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." According to Huffington Post, DeVun put out a call on a Listserv for mothers and parents in Brooklyn, finding plenty of other mothers who felt disappointed or ashamed at the apparent inability of their bodies to breastfeed "naturally." The resulting photos depict women adorned with all the "technological and artificial" equipment that assists them in feeding their kids.
The neutral tone of the photos was purposeful - the moms in them are neither celebratory or sad. They're just doing what they have to do, with no judgment of moms who do things this way or any other way.
DeVun's photo project is an important reminder that there's no one "right" method of feeding your child. Every woman's body (and every woman's baby) is different, and mom-shaming one mother for a child's inability to latch helps no one.
(h/t Refinery29)
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