I NEED A KISS BEFORE THEY LEAVE
Stop time. I want you here forever.
Never grow up. Never leave.
I need a kiss before they leave is an emotional family portrait, filled with immense joy, but also with a disturbing realization of a wonderfulness that cannot be stored. It reflects upon a human desire to freeze time, to forever savoring those moments which are destined to live on only as distant memories. Photography is of course the artistic technique to actually freeze time and to store a split second forever. In this book, Norwegian photographer Mathilde Helene Pettersen captures an entire parenthood, with all its bright and dark moments.
I need a kiss before they leave reflects on becoming and being a mother, on building a family, on the immediate and unpredictable, on strengths and fragilities in life, and sometimes on the overshadowing fear of death and the irreversible.
From the text by Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger:
First things first: loving is not for the faint of heart. Loving, day after day, requires the courage to handle the disappointment of quotidian love falling short of the ideal of love. It requires even more courage to extend love to societal structures in need of repair. (...)
»This is my story.« These are the words used by Mathilde Helene Pettersen at the beginning of her book I need a kiss before they leave. The series, consisting of photographs taken with a camera phone over a period of eight years, is a chronicle of childbirth, motherhood, and family life. Pettersen writes that this was a story she hesitated to tell.
Pettersen has spoken about the challenge and dichotomy of combining motherhood with the work of a photographer. On the one hand, she leads an ordinary enough, down-to-earth life with her family; on the other, she has a life outside the home, working as a photographer. Even in the Nordic countries, this is no simple equation to balance. Although the principle of gender equality in the workplace is firmly established, or at least acknowledged, it remains elusive in practice.
Order the book by sending an e-mail to: mathildepettersen@gmail.com
or
https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/mathilde-pettersen-i-need-a-kiss-before-they-leave-978-3-86828-963-3
This is my peregrination.
It is a story of human nature.
And the waiting before it appears.
The dew that makes the mist wet in the morning.
Cloudberries in an old bowl.
Maternity and the child’s presence.
The fragility of the moment.
In everyday life.
This series is a portrait of Norwegian artists shot by an Olympus Pen half frame camera.
Stop time. I want you here forever.
Never grow up. Never leave.
I need a kiss before they leave is an emotional family portrait, filled with immense joy, but also with a disturbing realization of a wonderfulness that cannot be stored. It reflects upon a human desire to freeze time, to forever savoring those moments which are destined to live on only as distant memories. Photography is of course the artistic technique to actually freeze time and to store a split second forever. In this book, Norwegian photographer Mathilde Helene Pettersen captures an entire parenthood, with all its bright and dark moments.
I need a kiss before they leave reflects on becoming and being a mother, on building a family, on the immediate and unpredictable, on strengths and fragilities in life, and sometimes on the overshadowing fear of death and the irreversible.
From the text by Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger:
First things first: loving is not for the faint of heart. Loving, day after day, requires the courage to handle the disappointment of quotidian love falling short of the ideal of love. It requires even more courage to extend love to societal structures in need of repair. (...)
»This is my story.« These are the words used by Mathilde Helene Pettersen at the beginning of her book I need a kiss before they leave. The series, consisting of photographs taken with a camera phone over a period of eight years, is a chronicle of childbirth, motherhood, and family life. Pettersen writes that this was a story she hesitated to tell.
Pettersen has spoken about the challenge and dichotomy of combining motherhood with the work of a photographer. On the one hand, she leads an ordinary enough, down-to-earth life with her family; on the other, she has a life outside the home, working as a photographer. Even in the Nordic countries, this is no simple equation to balance. Although the principle of gender equality in the workplace is firmly established, or at least acknowledged, it remains elusive in practice.
Dignity
where No dignity surrounds you
and Trauma is everywhere
Work in progress.
Moria Refugee camp, Lesvos, Greece, September 2019.
MORIA MOTHERS is a powerful and emotional story told by a Norwegian photographer and mother, who visited the refugee camp before it burned down. It reflects the trauma as well as the integrity of Moria mothers in a personal, poetic and political way.
Project shot with a Box Brownie.
More photos will come soon.
2017
E-mail: mathildepettersen@gmail.com - Phone: +47 958 49007- Adress: Postbox 273, 4663 Kristiansand Norway