First born.

When my daughter emerged, I wasn’t ready.
Moving, kicking, making her presence felt in her Mother’s belly, 
an idea to me, she was real to Jane.

She was swollen, angry and red.
She’d swallowed meconium, which rendered her mute.

They cleaned her up and placed her in an incubator.
Her breathing, a relentless pant

As I looked into her eyes, fierce and intense,
I knew my life had changed completely.

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Our children start out the perfect muses.
Initially desperate for attention, their willingness to collaborate wanes as they get older and develop a sense of who they are.

I’ve loved doing this project with Polly.

It’s a way for us to reconnect, to reflect upon who we are and together, make an artifact of our relationship.

Hopefully the work also touches on the nature of creativity and the passing of time, the subjective gaze and the ambiguity of truth.

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The rules are simple.
Starting in 2019, whenever we are together, she draws me and I take a photograph of her.

Polly Borden is a User Experience Researcher at Meta.

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