Holding the Baby, Photography exhibition opens in Arnolfini, Bristol

A woman walking slightly ahead of a boy aged around 10. She is smiling at him, while he looks a bit disgruntled. They are walking on a road in front of a bricked wall, painted red, with two patches of lighter red coloured paint. She is stylishly dressed in a long skirt and loose jacket, with fabulous pink, wedged heeled sandals. The boy is wearing a bright red t-shirt, denim shorts and dark trainers.

1. Barbeline and Elijah

A woman and boy around 10 years of age stood on top of a low brick wall leaning against a three bar, black railing. Behind them is a river running alongside a city scape, with narrow boat in the frame. She is stylishly dressed in a long skirt and loose jacket, with fabulous pink, wedged heeled sandals. The boy is wearing a bright red t shirt, denim shorts and dark trainers. The boy has his arms around the woman in a side hug, his head down and face hidden into her dress. She looks down at him and is stroking his head.

2. Barbeline and Elijah

A lounge-type room with amber curtains, a couple of paintings and tribal mask on the wall with huge spider plant on a stand. In the foreground a bespeckled woman, wearing a scarfed hairband, lies against cushions on the sofa apparently playing a game whereby she is a patient being administered medicine into her mouth, via syringe, by her young girl who sits slightly over her. Both have painted red stripes on their faces.

3. Carike with Seren

A woman and tweenage girl sat on a beach. The girl in the foreground has long, wet hair and is looking down to her outstretched arms. The woman, in a black swimsuit, is holding the girl’s foot, one hand around the ankle, the other around curled toes. Both are suntanned and the focus of the image is what they are looking at meaning the girl’s head is partially cut off by the frame and the woman’s completely.

4. Charmaine with her daughter Esme

A woman in between two young, teenage children, floating in what appears to be a river. All three are wearing black swimwear, the girl, on the right in a swimming costume, the woman and boy, on the left are wearing t-shirts. Their heads are above the water, outstretched arms and legs, floating out ahead of them under the water. The woman is looking towards the girl while the children are looking up at the photographer.

5. Fran with Dominic and Penny

A woman in a kneeling sitting position in front of two children; the one on the right, aged around 7 years looking side on, the younger, around 3 years, a back view. The woman is smiling, eyes shut, sun in her face and adorned with daisy chains around her head and across her face. The background is grassed with graves in the distance on what appears to be a summer’s day.

6. Gemma with Freya and Elsie

A group of, front left to right, a man, a boy around 13, girl around 11 and a woman, walk along a pavement in front of a railing. The man is carrying a blue truckle. The children are both eating a bag of crisps and looking towards the woman, apparently in conversation. The woman carries a water bottle. All three are dressed for spring/autumn.

7. Aaron with his children Esme and Kai and partner Chloe

A woman stands next to a table where two children are seated, drawing books open in front of them, crayon/pens in hand, both looking at the woman who is looking wistfully at the photographer.

8. Jana with Izaan and Yaana

A woman in between two children, the one on the left around 5 years old, the one on the right, slightly further away, around 3 years. They are in a brightly coloured, patterned subway, with red, yellow, blue, black rectangles on the ceiling and the pattern replicated in sunken panels along each wall. All three are wearing winter coats, with the children in hats and black, wellington boots. The children are front facing and look directly at the photographer while the woman, has her back towards the photographer but face turned towards them.

9. Jana with Izaan and Yaana

Woman photographer Polly Braden brings an exhibition about single parents to the UK.

Polly Braden presents Holding the Baby, an exhibition that creates a powerful portrait of the impact of austerity measured on families across the UK.

Holding the Baby is currently showing at the Arnolfini, Bristol, up until 12 June 2022.

Polly’s exhibition is a participatory project with families throughout the UK. She includes portraits & narrated stories which share their experience, strength, and resilience of single parenthood.

Her exhibition took inspiration from the recent UN report which stated that single parents have been the hardest hit by UK austerity measures.

Barbeline and Elijah, Holding the Baby, 2021 © Polly Braden, courtesy of Polly Braden

Polly’s motivation behind this project is not just an examination of the policies impacting single parents but also stems from her own experience of being a single parent.

‘After becoming a single parent myself I started to explore some of the prejudices leading to policies that scrutinise and punish the parent who has stayed. The people I’ve met in the making of this work constantly show their sense of adventure and their resilience transcends the often difficult situations they face.’

Polly Braden

The images in the exhibition show honest and intimate images of single families. A selection of the images were taken during lockdown by the parents themselves – capturing the families’ sense of adventure, optimism and ambition in their intimate moments. Alongside the images are excerpts from conversations between the families and journalist Sally Williams which reflects on the idea of ‘home’ being drawn together.

This exhibition is partnered with Museum’s Behind the Door campaign, working with London’s Homelessness Collective who are challenging the perception of what homelessness means for women and families. Working towards raising funds to help change lives through creativity and community as a frontline activity.

The importance of this project is not to continue to ‘other’ single-parent families but to highlight the lack of support from employment, society or from the government.

Museum of the Home contemporary curator, Sinéad McCarthy, puts it succinctly, ‘We are committed to represent the diverse meaning of home and the nuances of what real lived experience looks like. The role of museums is changing, it’s important that we confront urgent social issues such as this, and create space for conversation and debate. We have an opportunity to raise awareness and create change by giving voice to important narratives that may otherwise be overlooked.’

Polly Braden’s new exhibition, Holding the Baby, is being held at the Museum of Home, London till 29 August. It will also tour Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool in September 2021 and Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol in February 2022.

By Shyama Laxman