Elinor Carucci, Monday Morning, Mother of Two
Mother as Sacrifice, Mother as Protector
Elinor Carucci, a young Israeli-American mother of two, here depicts herself rushing across a street with her two children in a photograph taken by a trained assistant. The piece is is part of a series of photographs in a book she created called Motherhood, which shows her intimate, and at times difficult relationship she has with her children.
Here, Carucci clutches one of her children, and though mother-holding-child is a recognizable trope in the art historical canon, the way she holds her, unaware of any viewer and only for practicality’s sake–her child certainly could not keep her brisk pace by walking beside her–is new, illustrating the fast pace of contemporary life and the working woman’s role in it. In a society that expects good mothers to raise their own children but also demands that all productive members of society work, Carucci seems faced with the dilemma of bringing her children with her or leaving them behind. Notably, she cannot carry them both, and the shadow of her son chases after her, reaching out to be in her arms. In 2010, it seems to be a mother is to make sacrifices.