Charlie & Me for PICO

Ethical underwear label PICO commissioned me to take a series of self portraits with my son Charlie in their new range. I wrote some thoughts about the first months of motherhood for them to go alongside: " I thought motherhood would feel so magical, but it’s not. It’s blood and sweat and sick and milk and poo. It’s primal, it’s gross. When he has a cold I have to suck the snot from his nose so he can breathe. I wake up in the morning in a puddle of my own milk. And when he cries the pull to care for him is so strong it feels like a cheese grater is being pulled through my insides. It’s suffocating. I cry most days. But as I get to know Charlie, the love I feel is like nothing else, it feels like this is what life is all about, it’s a cliche but it makes all the pain worthwhile. A friend asked me the other day if I was worried about reproducing, don’t humans already damage the planet enough? I don’t think that’s what the bad guys are thinking, the climate sceptics don’t care, we need to outnumber those guys. So keep reproducing, make love, not war."