Huffington Post
Mom Puts Herself Back Into Family Pictures In Bold, Daring 'Domestic Bliss' Photo Series
By Caroline Bologna
After working as a dancer and actress for most of her life, mom Susan Copich experienced a flood of discouraging emotions when her agent stopped calling four years ago. As she writes on her website, "I felt middle aged and irrelevant." Copich felt invisible, both in her professional life and in her personal life.
Since she was constantly acting as the photographer, taking pictures of her husband and now 12 and 8-year-old daughters, Copich realized she was never actually in the photos, she told The Huffington Post in an email. And thus, the transitional period in her life prompted Copich to embark on a new photography project -- a series entitled "Domestic Bliss," that would change that dynamic. "I turned the camera onto myself and began to explore all the different sides of myself," she said.
Copich's revelation is one that moms far and wide can relate to. In 2012, blogger Allison Tate wrote about how she was absent from all of her family photos and made a declaration to Stay In The Picture. Her words went viral, inspiring thousands of moms to submit their photos. Tate explained why it's so important for her kids to see photos of her. "I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them. I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother."
Copich's photos aren't candid snapshots of her everyday life as a wife and mom. Instead, they're staged to bring to life her various thoughts about motherhood, in an artistic way, from the beautiful to the funny to the dark and twisted. "I wanted to explore all those passing negative thoughts that sometimes can hang around longer than you like and put them in light and technicolor," she told The Huffington Post.
Copich say her daughters "have a back-pocket full of pride" when they see the completed images.
Read the Article Here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/domestic-bliss-photo-series_n_6124100
