© Gail Albert Halaban

I first came across Gail Albert Halaban’s photographs in issue 185 of Aperture magazine at the end of last year. The series of photos surrounding women, their independence, their careers, and motherhood are beautifully composed, informally executed, and insightful no matter what your opinions of these women may be.

© Gail Albert Halaban

A statement from the recent exhibition This Stage of Motherhood at Robert Mann Gallery:

Like an anthropologist, [Gail Albert Halaban] portrays the private lives of these women as they journey from single life through motherhood. At first glance, they seem to have everything - education, elegance, wealth, and family. Yet for these women, such advantages are not without conflict. They must weigh having children with the desire to maintain an identity as it was prior to entering this stage of motherhood. Gail Albert Halaban’s satiric yet compassionate images illuminate their struggle to balance their children’s need for an emotionally available mother with their own inclination to hold onto the independence of youth.

© Gail Albert Halaban

I see moms like this all the time during daytime excursions with my kids. I try not to make any assumptions about them, but I often wonder about these women and the choices they made in becoming mothers, many times at the expense of their own careers and lifestyles.