Panel Discussion: Representations of Motherhood

About

This panel focusses on how motherhood is portrayed and represented in the media and within the history of art and photography. The panel will include Sara Rumens, Lifestyle Picture Editor, Grazia Magazine; Simon Watney, Art Historian and will be chaired by Dr Tracey Jensen, University of East London. Dr. Tracey Jensen is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of East London. In her research she explores mothering/parenting culture and how this is circulated through culture, media, policy documents, online spaces and in everyday life. Her current research examines austerity, welfare reform, the politics of poverty and ‘new thrift' culture. She is currently writing a book on parenting and neoliberalism. Sara Rumens has been the Lifestyle Picture Editor of the award winning UK weekly fashion magazine, Grazia since it launched in 2004. Currently selling over 1,000,000 copies a month it is widely seen to be the magazine which has changed the women's editorial market. Born and educated in Suffolk, Sara left home to pursue voluntary work in Sudan which led to studying a Geography degree in Northern Ireland. After gaining a post Graduate degree at LCC in Photojournalism, Sara moved to New York and worked on Interview Magazine before returning to London in 1997 and spending seven fantastic years as Editorial Director at Magnum Photos. Having previously been a judge for the Ian Parry Award, the Observer Hodge Award and the Irish Press Awards, she now spends her time (when not working for Grazia) researching books and lecturing on editorial photography. Simon Watney was senior lecturer in the history and theory of photography at the Polytechnic of Central London. He is the author of Policing Desire: Pornography, AIDS and the media, a book published in 1987 that analyses the representation of AIDS in British and US media. Simon has published widely in photographic, art and cultural theory. He is the co-editor of Photography/Politics Two (1986). In 1990 he cofounded OutRage!, an LGB advocacy group. Simon works as an independent art historian and lecturer. Book via The Photographers' Gallery website.