Permissions, the first monograph by photographer Emma Hardy, is a tender document of motherhood and childhood, love and yearning, and leaving home. The images in the book are gathered and distilled from Hardy’s personal archive and span a period of 20-years.
The photographs in the book show moments of recognisable domesticity interspersed with more idyllic scenes. The images evidence Hardy’s attempts to balance her creative professional life with motherhood—watching her children grow and change alongside a maturing relationship with her own mother. The book is divided into chapters, each announced by a large-format still life of home-grown flowers, made as a farewell during the last spring spent in the family’s house. As the book progresses, Hardy’s children grow increasingly independent and begin to venture away and out of frame. The project drew to a natural conclusion as the family moved away from their home.
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Hardcover
First edition, 2022
Essay by Alice Zoo
245 x 306 mm portrait format
160 pages, 80 images