The Hidden Mothers 

2023
C Type photographic print
Edition of 5, A2 size, 42cm x 59.4cm

During the late 19th-century, the trend in studio photography portraits of infants was booming. 

However the photographic process required the subject to sit still for several minutes. To get around this, the infant’s mother was concealed in fabric, disguised as furniture while holding the baby steady. The resulting images have come to be known as ‘hidden mother’ photography.

When photographer Clare Hughes recovered from her first pregnancy she was also coming to terms with her first experience of Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG). A severe pregnancy illness affecting women of all ages and backgrounds, its symptoms include constant nausea, vomiting, and dehydration. It leaves the mother distraught after months of physical and emotional turmoil. HG has gone virtually unrecognised by the medical establishment despite an estimated 30,000 suffering from it every year in the UK.

HG, and the lack of clinical care provision, has resulted in terminations, prohibited choice and has been associated with depression leading to suicide.

The Hidden Mothers is a participatory project with HG sufferers. Based on archival research it uses the Victorian ‘hidden mother’ visual metaphor for how its participants have felt during their pregnancies. The photographed creative act helps distance the participant from their experience providing a powerful cathartic perspective, while contributing to the message: we won’t be hidden anymore.

The Hidden Mothers has been exhibited at the Houses of Parliament in collaboration with the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support, in California in collaboration with the US Charity: Her Foundation at DNJ Gallery and at the ICHG conference. The Hidden Mothers solo exhibition at the Science Gallery London was funded by Kings College and will now be travelling internationally.