Elizabeth Hansen

Elizabeth Hansen

Elizabeth Hansen

How does pregnancy affect the perception of female identity? "Welcome/Welcome Back" (1996/2011/2021) comprises 32 self-portraits, two series shown as 16 image pairs taken 15 years apart: as a young woman in the first series, and as a middle-aged pregnant mom in the latter. The original series, "Welcome" (1996), explored the line between subject and object in the construction and assertion of female identity. Fifteen years later, as a 40-something pregnant mom, I was curious to see what impact time, the implication of motherhood, and other circumstances had on this sense of identity. By imitating the original photographs as closely as possible, the goal was to record not only physical changes, but especially the more nuanced and elusive psychological evolution. From a broader cultural perspective, I wanted to force a conversation about the female body’s particular capacity for radical changes in perception.