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- Mother in pale blue dress pushing a blue pram.
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- Mother in yellow top and jeans with pram and baby on blanket beside bench.
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- Mother helping child by holding onto their body, so they are safe to play on climbing frame.
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- Mother in red top watching older child in green sweat shirt on climbing frame.
A friend of mine Catherine Putz invited me to her home in Hebden Bridge and told me stories about her experiences of living and working in Tampere teaching English as a Foreign Language in 1979. She kindly showed me her photograph albums and leant me some books about Finland, including a 1970’s tourist guide to Tampere.
I was immediately drawn to the guide book. I am a child of the 70’s there is a sense of familiarity and nostalgia in the pages of the book. The paddling pool image in the park reminded me of the summer of 1976 and long days by a lido in with my parents, brothers and sisters.
I am interested in valuing gestures of care, therefore I cropped out details of mothers from the photographs. I wanted to re-frame the context of images so the focus was the maternal as opposed to a place to see in Tampere. The mothers become the site seeing; pushing prams, caring for babies, watching and facilitating play.
When I am in Tampere with Naoise, I want to spend time together with him playing in parks, meeting and observing Finnish mothers with their children. I wonder how differently people parent in Finland? Are there any particular parenting styles. How do they approach and value play, care, labour and education?
Wow how fab is that guide book! I love looking through things like that. I always get a bit melancholy for ‘the old simpler days’ that probably didn’t really exist. A longing to be in a different time.