CLARA BAHLSEN

Linn Schröder, Selfportrait with twins and one breast, 2012 . (In cooperation with Elke Rüss).

Linn Schröder, Selfportrait with twins and one breast, 2012 . (In cooperation with Elke Rüss).

This image has been with me for a long time, it’s so special to me. I know the photographer, we have talked about photography, but we have never talked about this image. 

I really relate to Linn Schröder’s picture, maybe everyone does, this borderline situation of life and death, how it talks about fear. It is such a poetic and dramatic image at the same time, and it’s bigger than words. 

I feel that I can be part of the picture, it is kind of a community thing for me. Will one breast be enough? We see this male figure in front of the kid where there is no breast, and I feel it could be my hand. That I should take part in raising these children and maybe take care of the mother as well. You don’t see her face, it’s all about the bodies. It could be my body, or your body, we could all be in this situation. I can adapt to this very moment, which is strange as it is such a special and private one. To me the picture is not about one specific mother surviving an illness -  it is us, all of us human beings, taking care of each other, sharing love and fear and life and death.

Maybe, since I have a child myself,  this image became even more important to me. Death is closer now, my time will end before my son’s time. Since he came to this planet thoughts like these are more present to me, I can feel time running through me. I see this in the picture, they can’t die today, they have to get through this. You only see the faces of the children, no father, no mother, only the future. They depend on adults right now, but they will be fine later. 

Some images become part of my own biography. I feel that I have been there, but of  course I haven’t. But still, I’m unable to erase them from my mind. Unable to ever forget. They even physically become part of my body as the pictures are stored in my brain. That is such a powerful act.