Amy is a successful actress who has learned a lot about combining motherhood with the image and youth oriented entertainment industry. “During a recent break on the set of a television show I’m currently filming, my co-star asked me what good books I’d read lately. This is an actor I’ve really admired for a while and an adrenaline rush ran through my body as I scrambled to think of an answer even though I knew I hadn’t read a single one since Georgia was born a year earlier. I tried to think of something I may have read in the past that would make me sound interesting, intellectual. Then a feeling washed over me. I wasn’t gonna hide who I am now. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. Plus they’re just making conversation, not testing me. So I just admitted that I hadn’t read any books during the previous year since I’d had my baby. I opened up that vulnerable part of myself that might be seen as not interesting enough or important enough, and it ended up being so much easier than trying to pretend that my life hadn’t changed. My honesty immediately brought that person back to 15 years earlier when he was a new parent. A smile came over his face and he said “Ah, of course! I remember not having time to read either.” As a result, an instant and real bond was formed and I got to proudly wear the skin of my new self.” Photographer Ali Smith has spent the past eight years exploring the reality of how women live their lives as mothers in modern western society. Her resulting project, entitled Momma Love; How the Mother Half Lives, explores the varying degrees of support that mothers receive from partners, lawmakers, employers, and each other. Momma Love is not only about the love a mother shows; it’s about the love she is shown, by herself and the world around her.