Amanda Tinker

When I arrived at Lynda’s office, I didn’t have a plan for how I would approach the shoot. But the first thing that struck me was the ease with which Lynda navigated the space itself. She was carrying twins, and yet, she was still able to deftly navigate her physical environment. She made moving around the small cubicles look easy.

The next thing I noticed was Lynda’s coworkers. Lynda was surrounded by an incredibly supportive environment. As I took pictures, I wanted to try and capture her relationship to her coworkers—particularly, her female coworkers. There was a camaraderie there, but also an understanding that Lynda’s experience was distinct. It was a delicate relationship that I tried to capture in my images. 

Working mothers are everywhere, in every facet of the American workplace. But when you look around for images that speak to that experience, there aren’t any. As a mother of three, I knew that experience firsthand. In trying to navigate motherhood and pregnancy in the workplace, I often felt very alone, and I searched for a community. Working Assumptions gives us a way to visualize what that community might look like.

Amanda is an American photographer based in Philadelphia, PA.