BB8 a laughing baby boy supported by his smiling mother against a black background

BB8 a mother standing close to her young son against a black background

BB8 a mother and young son touching foreheads and smiling

BB8 a teenage boy standing beside his mother

BB8 a teenage boy leaning over his seated mother

BB8 a mother and teenage son sitting together on the studio floor

BB8 a young man seated on a stool with his mother sitting close in front of him

BB8 a young man and his mother touching foreheads

BB8 Black and white close-up portrait of a young man and his mother leaning towards each other

BB8 a young man seated behind his mother with both arms wrapped around her shoulders

BB8 Black and white close-up portrait of a smiling young man standing beside his mother with an arm around her

BB8 a baby boy held upright beside his smiling mother's face

BB8 a mother holding her young son's face as they smile at each other

BB8 a young boy with his arm around his mother's neck as they rest their heads together

BB8 a smiling mother with her young son wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind

BB8 a mother standing and holding her young son close

BB8 a teenage boy and his mother embracing and smiling against a black background

BB8 a tall teenage boy hugging his shorter mother

BB8 a young man standing close to his mother with their arms around each other

BB8 a young man seated beside his mother

BB8 a tall young man holding his shorter mother in his arms as they look at each other

BB8 a young man holding his mother's face gently as they smile at each other

BB8 a mother bending over her small child and kissing his arm against a black background

BB8 a smiling young boy leaning against his mother

BB8 a young boy leaning over his seated mother from behind against a black background

BB8 a teenage boy standing behind his mother

BB8 a teenage boy embracing his mother from behind

BB8 a teenage boy standing behind his seated mother with his arms around her shoulders

BB8 a young man and his mother leaning towards one another across a studio ottoman

BB8 a tall young man leaning over his mother and wrapping his arms around her

BB8 a smiling young man standing behind his mother

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Then & Now Bas & Me

Bas & Me | Then & Now Portrait Photography

My boy. My photographs. Our years together.

The boy in front of my camera

Of all the people I have photographed over the years, there is one who has been in front of my camera more than most.

My son, Sebastian. Bas to those who know him.

He was little when I began building my portrait photography business. And somewhere between raising him, running a studio and photographing other people's families, I kept making portraits of us.

Sometimes he was small enough to fit into my arms.

Sometimes he was cooperative.

Sometimes decidedly less so.

And somewhere along the way, the boy I once persuaded to stand in front of my camera became the young man asking for another shoot.

The years between

I have watched this boy grow through my lens.

The little face changed.

The arms grew longer.

The child became a teenager, and the teenager became a man.

The photographs changed too.

There are the early years, when he fitted so easily against me.

The years when I could still pull him close without negotiation.

And the later portraits, when the young man beside me began to look increasingly like an adult.

But when I look at these photographs, I don't see only the changes in him.

I see the years of my own life passing alongside his.

We were both growing older.

I just hadn't noticed quite how quickly.

The mother in the photographs

As a photographer, I have always believed that mothers belong in photographs with their children.

Not only behind the camera. Not only taking the pictures. But in them.

And I have tried to practise what I preach.

These portraits are not about how I looked at a particular age, what I was wearing or whether everything in our lives was going according to plan.

They are about being there.

Being his mother.

Holding him when he was small.

Standing beside him as he grew.

And continuing to make photographs together, even when he was quite capable of having other ideas.

Because one day, these photographs will belong to him.

The boy who became a man

Bas is grown now, with a life and a career of his own.

There is something extraordinary about watching the child you once carried make his way into the world.

You spend years teaching them to become independent, and then discover that the relationship doesn't disappear. It simply finds another way of being.

But motherhood doesn't end when childhood does.

The relationship changes.

The conversations change.

The hugs change.

And these days, the invitation sometimes comes from him.

He will always be my boy.

What remains

Looking at these photographs together, I am reminded why I have spent so much of my life making portraits.

Not because photographs can stop time.

They can't.

But because they give us something to hold when time has moved on.

These are photographs of my son and me, made across the years.

They hold a childhood, a motherhood and a relationship that continues to change.

And of all the photographs I have made, these are among the ones I treasure most.

Ready when you are

You don't have to wait for your children to be grown before realising how quickly the years pass.

Get into the photographs with them.

One day, they'll be glad you did.

Explore the Then & Now Portrait Experience →

Explore the Mother & Son Portrait Experience →

One Moment. One Portrait. Forever

JOHANNESBURG PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

One Moment. One Portrait. Forever

International Master's in Portrait Photography
One of only two in Africa.

bridget@bridgetcorke.co.za
+27 82 881 4044