Stunt Doubles
Photography above by Clara Balzary, photography below by Nadine Ijewere.
Stunt doubles, body doubles, stand-ins. They all substitute the real actor, when the real actor can’t or doesn't want to do something like: hang off a moving helicopter, do that nude scene in front of 100 extras, or stand around for hours in an ice-cold lake as the crew set-up the camera and lighting. And who can blame them?
I discovered quite early on that while some of the people I approached to be part of the co—creators were willing to share their story, being in front of the camera was too much. They felt too exposed. One woman said that how her son was conceived was his story, and he's too young to even know that story yet. She wanted to protect his identity. And I get that. So rather than go down a real portraits direction, I'm combining these fertility stories with photography I love. The images aren't the people featured in the stories, but they support them. I had a conversation about egg and sperm donors the other day and we started referring to them as stunt doubles. So I guess these portraits are in some ways the stunt doubles for the people they represent.
“while the wait to motherhood feels shit, at least it looks good”
I recently watched the "It's my vagina" scene in the Netflix show Sex Education (great scene, but it's actually VULVA), where different pupils stand up in a school assembly to claim the identity of a fanny photo that was texted to everyone. The solidarity they show is so powerful. They literally stand up to protect the identity of one. The point is that it could have been any woman's vulva. Likewise, anyone could struggle to conceive for whatever reason. The stories I'm sharing are portraits of how we're creating families today, when making a baby the traditional way isn't working. By using stunt doubles I'm able to feature stories about people who want some anonymity, and also the work of amazing photographers. It means I get to co-create on a content level, to rebrand fertility struggles, so while the wait to motherhood feels shit, at least it looks good.
