Annabel Clark
I’m a documentary and portrait photographer. My work has covered a lot of different subjects, but I do find myself returning to many of the same themes—family, relationships. In that sense, while my work for Showing was a new subject for me to shoot—it was also a continuation of my other work.
When I’m shooting, I try to be a fly on the wall. Generally speaking, I find that the less I interfere, the more honestly I can capture a moment.
I took that approach in both of my shoots for Showing. But it was especially elemental in photographing Samantha, the doula, during a home birth. It was a real exercise in staying unseen—both to try and capture Samantha as honestly as I could, and also to respect the intimacy of the moment.
Annabel is an American photographer based in Seattle, WA and New York City, NY.
Natalia, Social Worker, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012
Samantha, Doula, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012
It was a peculiar experience—to be witnessing a birth with an outsider’s perspective. But it was beautiful: a very calm, positive environment. The mother was laboring at home at 5:30 on a summer evening— light streaming through the windows. I got lucky there. As a photographer, it was gorgeous, especially compared to a dimly-lit fluorescent hospital room. And personally, the experience actually convinced me that I was ready to have a baby. I had my daughter less than a year later.
Natalia, the social worker, was a bit farther along than Samantha. The intimacy between Natalia and her clients was obvious, and capturing that connection was important to me. She exuded an empathetic spirit, and I think that emerged in the photographs. I tried to make her and her clients feel comfortable, especially given the intimate nature of social work. For me, trust is the foundation of a good photographer-subject relationship, and I tried to cultivate that with Natalia.