Mother

<p><em>Mother: A Collective Portrait</em> is a deeply personal and profoundly human exploration of what it means to be a mother. In this luminous collection of black-and-white photographs and first-person stories documentary photographer <strong>Mary Motley Kalergis</strong> invites women from across the country to speak candidly about their experiences of motherhood-its joys struggles humor and grace. Drawn from interviews and portraits made over decades these women share the moments that define family life: birth and loss exhaustion and laughter the shaping of identity and the quiet endurance that love requires. Kalergis approaches each subject with an artist's eye and a listener's patience capturing the truth of ordinary lives with striking empathy. Originally published to critical acclaim and now reissued as <strong>Volume IV in the <em>Building a Family</em> series</strong> <em>Mother: A Collective Portrait</em> stands alongside <em>With This Ring</em> <em>Giving Birth</em> <em>Considering Adoption</em> and <em>Seen & Heard</em> as part of a five-volume journey through the making of family. Together these works document a half century of American domestic life and the universal bonds that sustain it. Both visual record and oral history <em>Mother</em> reminds us that every story of motherhood is both utterly unique and beautifully familiar-a testament to care resilience and love that transcends generations.</p>