Laura Wood is a photographer and educator based in South Yorkshire, England. She is a mom to two young boys, with motherhood and daily life inspiring much of her photography, and the co-founder of Phlock Live—a photography community hosting educational webinars and workshops.
Wood finds catharsis through self portraiture by taking feelings and emotions out of head and heart and holding a mirror up to herself by way of the camera. This process has given her a tangible way of dealing with everything from sleep deprivation, depression and anxiety to overwhelming love and gratitude. She is a firm believer that finding our creative voice is simple when we strip away expectation and pressure, and focus solely on instinct, impulse and freedom.
Laura joined Photographers Without Borders (PWB) Founder Danielle Da Silva as part of PWB’s ongoing “Storytelling for Change” webinar series. Below are edited excerpts from the discussion, which explore the centrality of motherhood to her work and the beauty of “in-between” moments.
Da Silva: You're one of the only people I've ever seen put “I'm a mum” in the first sentence of their bio. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Wood: I'm very proud to be a mum. So that's part of it. But also, the fact is that I am a mother before everything else in my life.
Images by Laura Wood
Da Silva: There’s this beautiful, nostalgic quality to your photographs and these really real moments that are so creatively photographed. What makes you see stories in this way?
Wood: Something that really interests me is the idea that motherhood—being a parent—is totally timeless. You can look at an image from hundreds and hundreds of years ago and see the same connection between a parent and child as you would even 20, 30 or40 years from now. Nostalgia is about being transported to the past and feeling everything we felt in those moments, and I’ve held that close to me in my work. My images are my way of keeping those feelings and leaving a legacy that shows my children the kind of mother that I was, and the relationships that we had in the life we lived.
Da Silva: Do you photograph other families?
Wood: Yeah, I do. I find that the clients coming to me want to tell their true story. Rather than getting the shots where everybody's smiling and looking at the camera, they want something that tells the story of what makes their family so uniquely beautiful, because every family gets along in a different way.Being able to capture that is such an honor. It’s the in-between moments that tend to pull on my heartstrings the most because they are the pieces of our lives.
Images by Laura Wood
Da Silva: I'm curious about your process. Do you always carry your camera with you? What do you wait or look for?
Wood: Sometimes I’ll take my camera out for a full day, but I don't shoot constantly because my kids need to feel that their mom is present. I'll often get these moments where it strikes me that I'm a mother. And it's just through simple things like seeing my reflection when I'm holding my child or realizing I've not been able to shower that day because the kids have needed me so much. I let those moments of realization feed into the stories that I tell: the story of what I'm feeling in my heart and in my head.
Da Silva: Can you tell us about Phlock Live and how that idea came to be? What it is and who it's for?
Wood: In the beginning, it was about elevating the position of women in the industry. I'm providing opportunities for women to teach, to speak, to learn and to grow in a safe space where they can feel creatively free and nurtured. And then I thought, this is not just for women—this is for marginalized genders, including women, but also for our non-binary and trans friends. The main thing is elevating the position of photographers in the industry, with marginalized genders top of mind in everything we do.
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