DENISE FELKIN

Cluster Exhibitor | Photography & Print Fair 2022

Denise Felkin is a Photographer, Lecturer & Author. She has a BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree from University of Sunderland and MA Photojournalism, University of Westminster.
Denise, who is childfree, began working on Mum's Not the Word in 2015, in response to the lack of acceptance and associated stigma towards women without children. Mum's Not the Word was a finalist in the Sony World Photography Awards, Julia Margaret Cameron Awards and National Open Art competition.
Mum's Not the Word was released as a photobook in 2019 and has featured in The Guardian & the iPaper, BBC News, and shown in London, Brighton, Blackpool, Doncaster, Cologne, Barcelona, Athens, Paris and Bologna.

Mum's Not the Word

Mum's Not the Word is a collection of photographic images depicting women who do not have children and their reflections on what this means to them as individuals. Raising questions of identity, social constructs, the concept of what it is to be a woman and how stereotyped behaviour is influenced by various factors, both external and internal, such as the expectation around having children and the impact this has in an era of environmental crisis.

Mum’s Not The Word was conceived because it’s often suggested that women who do not reproduce are selfish, do not like children or are not real women. I photographed the childless, child-free and childless by circumstance. The women are all in the foetal position, as a reversal of the recognised visual of the unborn child.

Why is it that women are expected to provide reasons for not having children,
and yet deciding to have them does not require justification?
Mum’s Not The Word photobook shares stories of birth control, choice, freedom, regret and pain, Mum's not the word challenges the negative attitudes within society towards people without children. The subjects, \come from all walks of life: professionals, artists, some with mental health issues, some have fragile relationships with their birth mothers, and some who identify as other than heterosexual.

BUY DENISE’S WORK FROM OUR ONLINE SHOP

PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS
Retreat. Peoples Picture. Format Festival, Derby (2021)
Retreat. Fix Still Life. Fix Photo Festival. L A Noble Gallery Online (2020)
Mum's Not The Word. Exhibition. Photo Fringe. Phoenix Art Space. Funded by Arts Council (2020)
Retreat. Lockdown Exhibition. Lucy Bell Gallery. (2020)
Mum's Not The Word. Artweek Bologna Artefiera Bologna. At Camera Metropolitana del Lavoro. Bologna, Italy. (2020 - now)
Mum's Not The Word. Representation on the Line III (Un)Framing Identities RPS 100 Heroines initiative. C View, Doncaster. (2020)
Mum's Not The Word. Exhibition Representation on the Line III (Un)Framing Identities. RPS 100 Heroines initiative. The Hive, Blackpool (2019)
Mum's Not The Word. Exhibition & Book Launch Representation on the Line II (Un) Framing Identities. RPS 100 Heroines initiative. 19 Mallord Street. Chelsea, London. (2019)

AWARDS
17th Pollux Award. Winner - Unbirth of Venus. Segregation and Human Rights series category. (2022)
17th Pollux Award. Honourable Mention - Dad's Not The Word (iain's story). People series category. (2022)
17th Pollux Award. Honourable Mention - Dad's Not The Word (Malcolm's story). Culture & Daily Life series category. (2022)
17th Julia Margaret Cameron Award. Single image Winner Unbirth of Venus. Segregation and Human Rights category. (2021)
17th Julia Margaret Cameron Award. Honourable Mention - Dad's Not The Word. People category. (2021)
Fix Still Life. Fix Photo Festival. Judges Choice Award from Manuel Rivera-Ortiz for Retreat. L A Noble Gallery Online (2020)
Mum’s Not the Word. National Lottery Project Grant. Arts Council (2020)
International Childfree Person of the Year. Nomination (2019)
Mum's Not The Word.World Photography Gala Awards special edition of Julia Margaret Cameron: Women Seen by Women. Honourable Mention. (2018)
Mum's Not the Word.National Open Art Competition. Finalist (2017)
Mum's Not the Word. Sony World Photography Award. Finalist in the People category (2016)
I'm Not Voting Because.. International Photography Award. Professional Political/ Editorial. Honourable Mention (2015)
I'm Not Voting Because.. Magnum Photos & Photo London Graduate Award. Nomination. (2015)
Conscious. Association of Photographers, Open Award. Finalist. (2014)
Scholarship Award to study MA Photojournalism at University of Westminster. (2012)

Mum's Not The Word. Athens Photography Festival Photobook Show. Benaki Museum, Greece. (2019)
Mum's Not The Word. National Open Art. The Barge House. Oxo Tower Wharf, London. (2017)
Mum's Not The Word. 10th Julia Margaret Cameron Award. Galeria Valid Foto, Barcelona. (2017)
Mum's Not The Word. 9th Pollux Awards Exhibition. Galeria Valid Foto, Barcelona. (2017)
Mum's Not The Word. Photokina, Cologne International Expocentre. (2016)
Mum's Not The Word. Sony World Photography Award. Somerset House. London. (2016)