My previous newsletter spotlighted musician and mother Amy Kyle, who beautifully explained how the birthing process itself helped her unleash her inner artist. Today, I’d like to introduce you to another artist-mother whom I deeply admire: photographer Tori Ferenc.
It’s hard not to look at Tori’s work and feel something deep. Sometimes that something is peace, sometimes it’s longing, sometimes it’s a quiet familiarity, an internal nod of the senses that makes you hum, “yes, I’ve seen this, too.”
Take, for example, this photo of an apple. A colloquial caption could be something along the lines of “tell me you have a toddler without telling me you have a toddler,” but it feels wrong to use modern turns of phrase to describe Tori’s work — her photos have an enduring quality that render them timeless. In a culture that often prioritizes novelty, it's refreshing to be whisked away to a realm where time seems to have paused.
Tori is a Polish portrait and documentary photographer who focuses on the themes of identity, community, and family dynamics. As a child in Poland, her school teachers were frustrated that she wouldn’t stop photographing things. After graduating university with a BA in English and Afrikaans, Tori moved to London (where she now lives with her husband and daughter) to pursue her passion. And we’re so lucky she did.
Tori’s work has been celebrated by global publications (The Guardian and Vogue Italia, to name two) and she’s shot campaigns for Nike, Adidas, Cardhu Whisky, and more.
Tori was kind enough to answer my questions about her work and her process — I’ll let her take it from here.
1. Where is the most unexpected place you’ve found creative inspiration as a parent?
I have always been the type of photographer who looked to the outside to find inspiration, searching for themes as away from home as possible. And, ironically, I feel I have created my best photographic work while looking after my newborn daughter, homebound by the pandemic. Being limited to our apartment, I started looking inward, finding a way to navigate that transformative time as a mother and an artist.
2) When you parent your creative self, what form of discipline do you use?
I think becoming a parent made my priorities clearer in general, but what helps me with self-discipline, is creating to-do lists. It can be the smallest things — responding to that one email I keep forgetting, applying to the competition before a deadline — but it really keeps me in check. Ticking these things off my list also helps me mentally, knowing I have finally done a thing I might have been postponing for a long time.
3) Who are your caregiver-artist inspirations?
There are lots, but the ones that inspire me the most are two photographers: Justine Kurland (@justine4good) who captured life on the road with her young son in America, and Siân Davey (@siandavey1), who draws from her experience as a psychotherapist and a mother to create beautiful work focusing on the themes of family and community. Their work is so tender, raw, and beautiful.
To see more of Tori’s beautiful work, look here. And follow her @toriferenc.
**Let me know: I’ve been thinking a lot about to-do lists recently and creative deadlines (more on that to come…) but I’m curious, do to-do lists work for you, as they do for Tori?**