The Kindred Collection documents extraordinary moments of motherhood

Tackling the stigmas around motherhood.

Meet Alannah Morton, the Gold Coast photographer helping women practise acceptance and self-love postpartum. Her project, The Kindred Collection, hopes to tackle the stigmas women face during this time.

From birth to breastfeeding to post-baby bodies, she documents the raw and extraordinary moments of motherhood.

Alannah began taking photographs of women after pregnancy with the intention of creating moving images that inspire women to feel comfortable in their postpartum skin. What started as a passion project quickly grew to reach women all across Australia.

“Once I announced I was starting The Kindred Collection across my social media accounts and put a call out for breastfeeding mums, I had a huge amount of women from all over Australia sending me messages asking to be involved,” she explains.

She’s now expanded the project to take on private breastfeeding sessions, even hosting group sessions in Melbourne with the potential to reach other states within the next few months.

While the current series is focused on breastfeeding, Alannah says it’s, “not a ‘breast is best’ campaign.”

The photographs have a dual purpose, not only standing as a beautiful memento for the women involved but also serve a feminist statement.

“I am standing behind the movement to normalise breastfeeding. It is about women’s rights to be able to breastfeed in public,” she says.

Alannah suggests this is an issue that all women, breastfeeding or not, should care about.

“A mother can choose to breastfeed her baby in public, or in private, but her choice shouldn’t be determined by the fact that she feels shamed. If we are going to support women’s rights, we should support all women’s rights.”

While motherhood, pregnant bodies, and the female parental experience have been stigmatised and generalised over time, social media now provides women with an avenue to connect and share their individual experiences about what they face after pregnancy.

In this same vein, The Kindred Project offers up a sense of community between mothers and women everywhere. The current series is focused on breastfeeding, but Alannah hopes to expand the project to capture all facets of motherhood – from pregnancy to ageing.

“Over the last year I have felt a shift in social media and have seen a lot more people sharing this kind of raw imagery which gave me the confidence to start my own project,” she says.

“I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if I could capture these images and use them to help women all over Australia.”

Learn more about The Kindred Collection here.

alannahmortonphotography.com