(no subject)
Melissa Lyttle
(Interactive Photojournalist)
I checked out the multimedia presentation by St. Petersburg Times photographer Melissa Lyttle. Lyttle followed Lillie, a 14-year-old mother, through the pains and struggles of motherhood. Lillie is young and helpless, and even though she is starting a family of her own, she is in desperate need of a foster family for her and newborn Thomas. A judge approves 37-year-old Amy to be her foster mother, and orders Lillie to be supervised when she is with her baby. Lillie needs to demonstrate she can responsibly fulfill the duties of motherhood.
Throughout the photo essay, Lillie’s moods are documented. From giving birth to her child, Lillie is happy, determined, and unselfish, but as the months drag on, the stress that comes with motherhood takes a toll on her. There’s one shot where Lillie hands off her motherly duties to Amy because she is “exhausted from a long day of many firsts.”
In another very powerful image, Amy appears 50 years older as she sits in front of a television set almost in a trance. Her childhood has been taken away from her for another childhood, and her optimism for her own future is on the decline. This is my favorite image in the set because it expresses so many emotions including feelings of uneasiness, isolation, and a duty to keep things in place.
