A Second Beating Heart

The birth of a child is also the birth of a mother. Her body carries a second beating heart. When that second heart suddenly beats outside the body, everything changes. The return to a new normal starts slowly.
A Second Beating Heart tells the story of Martha, a newborn mother, using documentary and autofictional strategies. A few days after giving birth to her first child, Martha no longer leaves the house. What begins insidiously becomes a new reality. For almost three years the house becomes a shelter, a prison and a cocoon at the same time.
What many people experienced these years as a compulsion or an external necessity, the isolation at home, becomes a vital strategy for Martha: Inner spaces become outer spaces and vice versa.
A photo art book about the many sides of motherhood, about love and postpartum depression, a topic that is too often kept silent. With a literary essay by Rabea Edel. Shortlist Belfast Photo Festival 2022