NAIROBI 1°17’11.0”S 36°49’02.0”E
Switching from Mama Mode to Photographer/Business Mode and back requires mental agility. There’s a hidden mental load of juggling family schedules, producing shoots, editing timelines, and thinking ahead about everyone’s needs. It’s a constant shift that can be exhausting but has taught me resilience and adaptability. While on assignment recently for Conservation International documenting grassroots ocean conservation, I was having phone calls about ballet and swimming lessons, and paying the milk delivery man. All this was whilst finding the best angles and light to capture either a huge flock of common terns taking off from an isolated coral island far off the south Kenyan coast or a group shot of Kenya Wildlife Service rangers whose protection work takes them to far-flung islands off the south Kenyan coast. Editor’s call on which is stronger! Five years in, I can take another look at my motherhood journey. I see how it has reshaped and deepened my creative perspective, providing me with new insights and unique perspectives (and patience!) that I now bring into my photography. My daughters’ curiosity and wonder at their world has inspired me not to overlook the little moments, as very often these are truly breathtaking. Through them, I am revisiting all the things I never knew I’d forgotten, like playing carefree in the wild streams of the Mara. And now, 20 years on in my photography career, I’m back where I started—with nature. Mothers reading this, and any of you thinking what being a mother would be like: Feel seen! As a mother, you have a chance to relive life again, to explore nature with all its wonders. It’s a chance to teach our children how to love and protect our world, so they can show others how to live. As a photographer reinventing herself, I am drawing on my experience and unique way of creating. My love for nature and my huge fear at seeing just how fast it’s all disappearing have ignited in me a deep passion and urge to connect us and to reconnect as many people as possible back with nature. My ethos for life going forward, in motherhood and photography: The more we connect to nature, the more we realise we love it and need it for our survival, and we will choose—and even fight—to protect it. That is the life that I’m giving my daughters. Luckily, I married a conservationist, with over 30-years experience with wildlife—in research, anti-poaching, and life in the bush. I have a partner in my call to have a life with nature, to learn, understand, and connect others, so we can all work together to protect the nature we have left.
I hope you’ll join me.
With love Georgina
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MOTHER VOLUME FOUR
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