Rona Chang
I had never met Jackie before the shoot, but she was easy to work with. Often, it can be challenging getting a subject to relax enough to appear natural in front of the camera. That wasn’t the case with Jackie; she was comfortable right away.
That comfort made for an easy shoot. It wasn’t exactly documentary photography, but it wasn’t really staged, either. Jackie would go about her day doing what she normally did—fluffing pillows, checking price tags—and I would follow her around. If I noticed something striking, I’d take a couple minutes to check the light, find an angle, and then ask her to do it again. I wanted to show her work honestly, but also ensure that I took a couple minutes to capture it as beautifully as possible. The hybrid approach afforded me the best of both worlds.
Rona is a designer, maker, and business owner based in Pittsburg and used to work as an art photographer.
Jackie, Furniture Salesperson, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012
I participated in Showing before I was a mother myself. Looking back, I’m amazed that I was part of a project like that. It resonates so much more with me now than it did when I was shooting it. I now know firsthand how much motherhood changes you—people make so many different kinds of decisions as mothers that they wouldn’t have made otherwise.
I am no longer photographing. The decision to stop wasn’t necessarily motivated by the birth of my son—as someone who likes to work with my hands, photography’s transition from film to digital took a lot of the fun out of it—but motherhood certainly informed the second act of my career.
When my son was young, I used his naptimes to reconnect with a hobby from my childhood—sewing. Over the years, that hobby blossomed into a business—a store in Pittsburgh where I sell women’s clothing and home goods. It’s work that feels more tactile, like film photography used to, but it also fits into my life with family.
I think my story is a common one for a lot of mothers—that their career choices are informed by motherhood, but not dictated by it.