Arnolfini presents photographic exhibition of single parent families from Polly Braden

Following showings in Liverpool and London, Polly Braden’s photographic exhibition Holding the Baby will launch at Arnolfini on February 19, where it will run for three months.

An accompanying pop-up will also be showing at Baraka Café in Easton (dates to be confirmed), and a book of the project will be published on March 31.

Inspired by Philip Alston’s 2019 UN report into the impact of austerity, Braden worked with a number of single parents and their families, to document the inner worlds of their day-to-day lives.

The results are intimate, and quietly revelatory, portraying what Braden describes as the transcendent sense of “adventure, optimism, creativity, ambition and resilience” of the single parents that are featured.

Braden herself was a single parent, and was motivated not only to confront common assumptions of the single parent experience, but “to look at some of the prejudices and policies that impact the parent who stayed”.

The collection is supported by the single parent family charity Gingerbread, and CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group). It was first created by Museum of the Home, London (curated by Sinéad McCarthy), with funding from Arts Council England, Grain, and Behind the Door.

The images portray Fran, Jana, Charmaine, Aaron, Barbeline, Caroline, Gemma and Carike, and their respective children. They were made collaboratively, and usually, but not always, by Braden – especially during periods of lockdown when she was no longer able to enter their houses.

Jana with Izaan and Yaana – photo: Polly Braden

Accompanying Braden’s photos, the exhibition will also present a series of collated thoughts from single parents on ‘the favourite thing in their home’, and excerpts from interviews by journalist and Braden’s long time collaborator, Sally Williams.

In the run-up to the exhibition launch, Braden spoke to Bristol 24/7 to share some greater insights about her experiences of photographing single parent families:

Do you think there is a perceived narrative surrounding single parent families? In what ways does the Holding the Baby project challenge or overturn those presuppositions?

“I think the narrative has been around a long time; the feeling of single parents being scroungers, or the othering of single parents. Not everywhere, obviously, but that narrative meant that there was an idea around fairness, rather than what people actually needed.

“And so lots of the policies that have been put into place have been built around prejudices. But in fact there are 1.8m single parent families – that’s a quarter of all families. And 70 per cent of single parent families are working parents.

“What I wanted to do was to show that all the single parents that I have met just want to make a really good life for their children and they fight tooth and nail for that. They’re really hard-working; they want to build a home against all the odds, and they’re the ones who stayed.”

Carike with Seren – photo: Polly Braden

In what ways did the differing experiences of the subjects you photographed demonstrate a sense of connection and solidarity between single parents?

“I imagine that when you first become a single parent you feel very alone, but I think what women are quite good at – because single parents are 90 per cent women – is creating community; networks of people to help them, as well as charities like Gingerbread.

“But the reality is that if you’re a single parent, you might not have spare cash to pay for a babysitter and will often have to be at home alone in the evening with your children, so there is a lot of loneliness.”

Can you sum up your reportage photographic style, and the power of visually representing the day-to-day lives of your subjects?

“I met eight families, and asked if I could come into their home and take pictures in their private space, so there had to be some trust, and there also had to be a collaboration. For example, with Jana, to begin with, I photographed her looking away from the camera for about six months; then she said “I want to show my face, and I want it to be of us, and the kids”.

“During lockdown I couldn’t go into the home so sometimes I would set the camera up without people being there, and then they would go in and take their own picture, so it’s very much about building relationships, and making sure that they and their kids were being photographed in a way that they wanted to be photographed.

“They themselves began talking a lot more about the situation for single parents, too. When I first met Barbeline, she’d say: “It’s fine, I never ask for benefits; it’s too much of a nightmare”. And then after a while, she’d say: “It’s not fine, is it. It’s really awful that there’s no housing with two beds for a mum and a teenage kid; how are you meant to live with your 14 year old son and have one room?”

“In a way, through the project lots of the women started to reassess what life was like and what was fair. Gemma for example was just so busy, she had three kids, and she worked – but when her husband left, she had to go onto benefits. You get no money for your third child- it’s a two child limit in the UK in terms of the child tax element of Universal Credit. But she’s the one who stayed, and she gets punished for the decision they made that was based on their previous income together. She’s doing everything she can; she has no more hours to give.”

Gemma with Freya and Elsie – photo: Polly Braden

When you look at the collection, is there a prevailing emotional response, or a general reaction that you might expect to arouse in others?

“I could have chosen to photograph the kids when they were having a meltdown or something, but I did choose a line somewhere between performative and documentary. I really didn’t want sad pictures. The front cover of the book is of Charmaine and her kids on the beach: it’s about touch and emotion, and those connections we have with our children.

“First and foremost, I hope people go in and they think “wow, these women look so cool, how brilliant. Look at Barbeline, she has a business in fabric design, and she’s really great with her son Elijah; look at Jana, she’s got into university, having been in a refuge in Islington – hats off to her, she’s incredible”. Hopefully people will be astonished by how strong, brilliant and resilient these women are.

“And hopefully too they will see some of the stories around the exhibition – the different ways in which single parents are so badly affected by the way our benefits system is set up: the two child limit; the fact that child maintenance support is so far in arrears; the fact that often you can’t get a family ticket if you’re a one parent child – all those things that many of us don’t realise.

“I hope people reassess the situation for single parents in this country and are a bit kinder to single parents.”

Barbeline and Elijah – photo: Polly Braden

Holding the Baby was born of single parents’ experience of austerity. Now two years into the pandemic, what is your perspective of the ways in which your chosen subjects have coped with such an unprecedented time?

“I think inequalities have been heightened during the Covid crisis. Single parents were required to work as well as being the teacher at home; more single parents have lost jobs. 49 per cent of single parents were taking on more debts during Covid, and one in 10 fell out of work. The charity Gingerbread found that single parent families were three times more likely to rely on food banks during the pandemic.

“Gemma asks at one point “how are you meant to work and school your children at the same time, when they need you there as a teacher, but you need to push your children away from you while you’re trying to get your work done?” It’s just so tricky.”

The exhibition features words from journalist Sally Williams. Can you describe this long-time collaboration, and the ways in which it deepens the experience of viewing your images?

“Sally and I have worked together for over 20 years doing stories for magazines, and we’ve made three books together. I think what’s good about the way in which we work is that together we’re really good at finding people, being collaborative and really listening to the stories.

“It’s important to us to let the stories try to speak for themselves, rather than shouting about the issues behind them. So it’s really about going deep, and just letting the details of someone’s life describe what the situation is like for them.”

Barbeline and Elijah – photo: Polly Braden

Polly Braden: Holding the Baby is at Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA, from February 19-June 12 (Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm). The exhibition is free and will be bookable in advance, though walk-ins may be available on the day. More information is available at www.arnolfini.org.uk. The accompanying book will be published by Dewi Lewis Publishing on March 31.

Main photo: Polly Braden

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