The series of images represents parents carrying their child in a baby carrier. Snapshots of moments, the person stopped in their daily life. The mothers and fathers have left the role of the observer, look proudly and self confidently into the camera, suddenly observed themselves. The child is safely held in a raised position. The book “The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost“, by the American author Jean Liedloff describes her stay with the Yequana, a tropical rainforest tribe who live in the forests of Venezuela. Liedloff became fascinated by their child rearing. For example, they hold their babies 24 hours a day ‚ “in arms“, particularly in the first year of life. The people interact in unusually friendly, confident and peaceful ways.
To carry a child is a natural behaviour of parents. It shows a common thread between the people shown on the images: The woman at the grocery in Los Angeles, the former General on Mount Popa in Myanmar, the beggar in Bagan. The aim of the series is to show the relationship between parent and child, the facial expression of the adults, which is consistent in various climatic and cultural areas. In hot zones, the infant directly on the body, with skin contact; in cold climates, the clinging young dressed warmly, wrapped up.