Lorissa Longfellow

Touch

Touch was taken of a mother and daughter. To me it exemplifies the bond between mother and child. Hand can express so much and this touch is the touch of love and trust.

A Part of Her

A Part of Her is a portrait of a mother and her 3 week old newborn. The way she is holding him so close reminded me of how newborns often seem like they are still so close and dependent on their mother. When my daughter was that little I had a hard time putting her down, it seemed like she was still a part of me.

Bond

A portrait of a mother breast feeding. It and Touch are some of the first photos of the series. It is so classic to me. Even though the child is about a year old, she still has a very strong bond with her mother and it is shown here by the way the child is reaching up and the mother smiles.

These are some of the most touching photos in the series, but I have been trying to photograph other emotions, both positive and not, all mothers go though. There are photos of encouragement, empathy, play, and more. Motherhood is something that can't be explained only experienced. Many mothers told me, when I got pregnant, that my world would change, but I couldn't even imagine how much it did. Just to start, the love you feel is like nothing else. In this series I hope to capture that experience in a way that words can not.

Larissa has been photographing her world since a family friend gave her a Kodak box camera and she learned to develop prints as a young child. In high school she purchased her first 35 mm SLR camera, learned to develop film, and experimented with a variety photographic of techniques. Later, in college she continued to experiment with art and photography, but concentrated on the history of art. Following college, she worked in the arts i

ncluding as a gallery director for a contemporary craft gallery. In late 2002 her future husband and her moved west and for the first time since college was able to focus on making her own art again.You can see more of her work atwww.ljdesignphoto.com

(Some of these photos are for sell, along with other photos taken by Larissa. If you are interested in purchasing any, click on the photo and it will link to where you can buy them.)