
WE, the Women's Caucus is a biennial juried exhibition of photo-based/light artists that are members of the Women's Caucus within the Society for Photographic Education.
WE, the Women's Caucus stands to celebrate Women, Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and our diversity with an honorable nod to our solidarity with our identity and medium. These photographic works are responsive pieces that illuminate, question, and challenge societal notions through our individual expression.
Morgan FORD WILLINGHAM
ARTIST STATEMENT
From the day Imogen was born, my life changed. Every second is part of a building, poetic existence. An existence that at times recalls feelings of reliving my own childhood through a doppelganger, while at other times seems as strange and alien as observing a random child on the street – I am at once curious and arrested by the mix of emotions carried from day to day. As she grows into a being that is distinctly different from the individual that her mother is, was, and is becoming, I am forced to examine the hopes and desires carried as her life progresses.
This work examines a mother and her child, the observer and the observed, and the distinctiveness of each. We are tied by experience, memory, and DNA. The images individually and collectively allude to the intimate daily circumstances between my daughter and me, and the historical and cultural influences that shape us both as individuals and as a familial unit.
The series consists of portraits of mother and daughter printed in the historical photographic process cyanotype, often referred to as a “blue-print”. Some images include hand embroidered text of excerpts from poetry and literature that served to wind a young child down for sleep and that still speak of the possibility for a life that continues to unfold. Other images include floral patterns that allude to the art historical context of motherhood and femininity. The use of found textiles appropriate the history of intimate objects and their resilience through time.

Morgan Ford Willingham is a photographic artist and educator. After receiving a MFA in photography from Texas Woman’s University, she moved to the Midwest to pursue a career in academia and art making. Morgan explores pop culture, advertising, and societal norms to better understand its influence on women, and their identity and self-image, through the use of various mediums, including photography, book arts, and installation. Her work has been widely exhibited, including Humble Arts Gallery in NYC, Filter Photo in Chicago, and the Hite Institute of Art in Louisville, KY. She is currently Associate Professor of Photography at Emporia State University in Kansas.