Portfolio Mahel PFAFF

(M)Otherhood

By Mahel Pfa

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Speos Photography School Photojournalism-32W

Why was I exiled…, uprooted…, rejected…, otherized…?

Conversations around adoption can emerge out of self-doubt and unknown loss. What if…? Who were they…? Why couldn’t I stay?

Adoptees who survive often create personal spaces lled with objects that align their fragmented histories. I existed in these women's homes and they allowed me to use my lens to explore the objects or spaces a rming their adult identities.

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This project was born from a personal place. Photographing the adoptees and learning their stories ultimately brought me more acceptance of my own identity. One conversation is not su cient; these images are a rst conversation.

Photographing these women as well as hearing their stories ultimately brought me closer to my story and started to ll the holes. With each image, I began answering questions that I had long traveled with. These images present one step toward a more public conversation on experiences of “otherhood.”

Lou-Hanna Ribault, adopted April 2001

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Mahel Pfa , adopted January 10th 1997

Alix Aubry, adopted November 19th 1994

Mahel Pfaff Mahel is a documentary and conceptual photographer from Washington D.C. She is currently pursuing a masters in photography at Spéos Photo Video and CGI School in Paris, France.

As an adoptee with lack of knowledge on her direct biological roots, her work is deeply in uenced by the various ways one refers to, remembers, de nes and documents “Home”.

Through her work she creates a space for her community's stories to be told.

Contact Information:

@blvck.lens mahelpfaff.com pfaffmh@gmail.com

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© Henrik Meng