Hidden Mothers

Photographer Laura Larson has a collection of tintype photos in which the mother of the child was included in the photograph, but obscured. The mother's presence was necessary to keep the little ones calm during the long exposure required by the tintype process. She would hold her child, with a cloth or props hiding her from the lens or she would be painted over by the photographer after the image had been taken. Sometime only her arm was visible, holding the child in place.

“The hidden mother speaks to the fragile balance a mother must maintain in raising a child—cultivating both attachment and autonomy,” says Larson.

More: New Republic