Where Birth Meets Art
I first met Claire when we lived on the same street, while her two boys were still young, our paths often crossed to and from school drop offs and pick ups. She later moved a short distance away, but whenever our paths crossed we would always find ourselves chatting about our work and our shared interest in birth, motherhood and women's experiences.
In recent years, we've reconnected through our shared work supporting families within our local maternity services and as part of the wonderful Womb & Bloom collective. More recently, Claire has joined my local women's yoga class, and it has been such a joy to have her in that space. There's always something to talk about, and I continue to be inspired by her thoughtful approach to both her art and her birth work.
‘Am I Working or Am I not Working’ 2021
Here Claire shares how birth and motherhood — her own and others’ — continue to shape her artistic practice
During my studies, I experienced a miscarriage, while a close friend, who was also pregnant in her early forties, carried her baby to term. I asked if I could be present at the birth and document aspects of it as a form of catharsis. This led to my final undergraduate degree show, A Massive Nothing, which explored what it means to witness birth.
I invited people to watch the birth film I had made and photographed their reactions in the studio. Their responses ranged from shock to wonder. I also collected birth videos from YouTube to create a three-screen triptych: a moving collage of active births, flanked by portraits of those watching. A Massive Nothing won the Birth Rites Collection Award and is now part of the Birth Rites Collection at the University of Kent.
In 2015, I trained with Michel Odent and Liliana Lammers on the Paramana Doula Course. It was an incredible experience and confirmed my passion for birth work. However, it wasn't until 2022 that I began working as a birth doula. Today, I primarily support families through Happy Baby Community, a London-based charity that provides doulas, in-person groups and welfare support for women seeking asylum.
In my early fifties, I began studying for an MA in Fine Art. Having started just before the COVID-19 lockdowns, much of my degree was completed from my living room.
The maternal subject always draws me back.
Perhaps that is because, in my late twenties, I lost my first baby when I was six months pregnant. It was a life-changing experience that continues to shape both my practice and who I am today.
My work often begins with an obsession—an idea, a piece of writing or something I've read or researched. From there, I gradually let go and allow the work to emerge.
For my final MA show, I made the film Am I Working Or Am I Not Working 2021 which sits somewhere between a staged photographic portrait and an ethnographic film. For around a year, I worked with my friend Hannah, who had her child just before the pandemic. Her experience became the foundation of the work.
I used the framework of infant observation, a psychoanalytic training method in which students observe a mother and baby throughout the child's first year. Unfortunately, the pandemic meant we couldn't meet as often as I had hoped. Whenever we could, I recorded our conversations or wrote detailed notes after each visit.
Through these encounters, I began making connections between breastfeeding, the mouth, the origins of language, and the ways we first learn to negotiate absence and presence through our earliest relationships. Expressing both maternal love and maternal ambivalence, Working shares Hannah's reflections on her changing sense of identity and evolving relationship with her child. The film closes with her child imitating his mother, attempting to feed her in return.
Why don’t you make a cuppa and watch Claire’s piece below Sleep Solution One
Sleep Solution Number 1
One last thought
“It’s always a process being filmed or photographed, because of the collaborative nature of it, especially when babies are in the picture. But I’m always looking for mums who are into the idea of building an archive of maternal work with me.” - Claire
If you would like to commission Claire for a photoshoot during your pregnancy email her here.
Go to Claire’s website to see more of her work.
Claire Lawrie received her BA in Photography from the London College of Communication and her MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL.
She is a BarTur Award prize winner for her portrait Louise Looking at a Birth. Her project A Massive Nothing won the Birth Rites Collection Award, while her portrait Chanelle and Her Girls, from her commissioned series and exhibition The Chapel, was the winner of a Life Framer Award.
Claire's work was featured in the Photoworks Annual 2017 and at the Brighton Photo Biennial. She is also a Portrait of Britain winner in 2017 and 2019.
Her first short film, BEYOND: There’s Always a Black Issue Dear, won the Queer Vision and Iris Prize Best of British awards in 2018. Her more recent short film, Working Not Working (2021), is held in the UAL archives.