I vividly remembered that exciting morning when I drove my family to Notting Hill and to collaborate with the wonderful Fiona for her #MotherWorks book. With Fiona’s direction, I chose a sequin dress and had my girls in my arms in a fashion store, but I chose a charity shop instead of any of my client’s store to advocate my view on sustainability to buy vintage and second hand instead of always buy newly produced items.
As a professional photographer, Fiona started documenting how motherhood and career women can be normalised that we don’t need to choose one or another. There are so many stories were beautifully portrayed through Fiona’s incredible project and she launched this project inside the House of Parliament March 2020, and I wanted to share this incredible moment and celebrate Fiona as a friend, a mother and a working woman for sharing all our stories beautifully on her platform.
KF: How did you start your journey to be a photographer?
FF: Both my parents were photographers, so I grew up surrounded by conversations about colour balance and lighting. I resisted the urge to follow in their footsteps for as long as I could, I tried stand up comedy and singing backing vocals but in the end I came back to what I was best at. I am self taught and got my portfolio together learning from an old professional teaching an adult education course. I pounded the pavement with my portfolio, I started working for fashion fanzines like Blow Magazine, then progressed to the music and style magazines of the 90s. DJ, Select, GQ and eventually worked for the Guardian and Observer Magazines and Vogue. You can check out some of the work at fionafreund.com
KF: What inspired to you launch this project #MotherWorks? What is your vision for this amazing campaign?
FF: Conversations with other working mums confirmed for me that we feel we are expected to raise our kids like we don’t have a job and do our job like we don’t have a family. So I decided to tell these two stories in one photograph with sometimes hilarious results. I like to use humour the make a very serious point. I have been overwhelmed by the positive response to the pictures.
KF: How has Covid transformed the way you work? Is it hard to do your work via digital only?
FF: I really haven’t been able to shoot at all since the last lockdown started but I have been doing virtual events and will be celebrating IWD by sharing pictures of the #MotherWorks mums but sadly no exhibitions, launch events or bubbles. I am working open a new exhibition called Corporate Queer which I hope to start shooting for soon. I’m very excited about it.
KF: Let’s discuss workplace, what is your opinion regarding policies in supporting working mother, how do you think we can make further policies change?
FF: Covid has been a disaster for working mums, especially the self employed who cant claim for any support if they have had a child in the last 3 years, which is appalling. Rishi Sunak’s “Thanks mums’ speech was just adding insult to injury. It is all the jobs predominantly done by women, hospitality, retail, cleaning and caring, that have been hardest hit. This could put the little progress we have made recently to bring gender equality to the workplace back 30 years!
KF: Fashion! You are also a supporter for sustainable fashion and the promote the policy with your organisation Justice in Fashion, what is your view on the key game changes that brands should look into and follow? And more fun bits, what is your favourite item in your wardrobe and how old is it, where you purchased it?
FF: I think the fashion brands must take responsibility for their supply chains, all of them, and not rely on 2nd and 3rd layers of supply that they cannot trace. We must give up our addiction to fast fashion, not that is is only cheap clothes that use poorly paid or even slave labour, we must by fewer well made items where the workers are properly paid for their skilled work. The B.Corp standard of production is fantastic, hopefully one day all clothes with be make this way.
KF: Lastly, food!!! What is your best quick freshly made meal that can be done under 30 minutes?
FF: So for the kids it’s pasta with salmon (responsibly sourced) broccoli and cream cheese, you can add the broccoli to the pasta and cook together for the last 5 minutes then add chopped salmon and cream cheese, yummm! Add black pepper and white wine and the grownups love it too.
You can contact Fiona Freund via LinkedIn, Instagram, Website. Also buy her fabulous MotherWorks book here!
Thank you for reading this article, please follow me on Instagram @kfyangoconnor for more stories and updates.
中文：
我記得那個快樂的早晨載這家人一起開車到倫敦諾丁山，與Fiona合作，加入她的#MotherWorks。在菲奧娜（Fiona）的指導下，我選了一件亮片洋裝，在一家時尚二手商店中將我的女兒們抱在懷裡，一起拍照。我選擇了一家慈善商店而不是我的客戶商店中的任何一家來宣傳我對可持續性的觀點，以購買古董和二手貨，而不是總購買新生產的物品。
菲奧娜（Fiona）作為專業攝影師，開始記錄如何將孕產婦和職業女性規範化，而我們不需選擇做媽媽或是做女強人。 Fiona生動地刻畫了許多在職媽媽的故事，她於2020年3月在國會大廈發起了這個項目，我想分享這個非常棒的時刻，並慶祝Fiona作為朋友，母親和職業女性分享我們所有她的平台上漂亮的故事。
KF: 您是如何開始你的攝影師的旅程？
FF: 我的父母都是攝影師，所以我在關於色彩平衡和照明的對話中長大。我一直竭力拒絕跟隨他們足蹟的衝動，我嘗試了喜劇表演和演唱背景音樂，但最終我又回到了自己最擅長的領域。我是自學成才的，並且從一個教授成人教育課程的老專業人員那裡學到了很多東西。我用自己的投資組合砸了人行道，開始為Blow Magazine等時尚雜誌工作，然後發展到90年代的音樂和時尚雜誌。 DJ，Select，GQ，最終為《衛報》和《觀察家》雜誌和《 Vogue》工作。您可以在fionafreund.com上查看一些工作。
KF: 是什麼激發您啟動了#MotherWorks這個項目的？
FF: 與其他正在工作的媽媽的交談為我確認，我們認為我們應該像沒有工作一樣養育孩子，而像沒有家庭一樣工作。因此，我決定在一張照片中講述這兩個故事，有時結果很有趣。我喜歡用幽默來表達一個非常嚴肅的觀點。我對大家對我的作品的熱情非常感動。
KF: Covid如何改變了您的工作方式？僅通過數位方式很難完成您的工作嗎？
FF: 自從上次鎖定開始以來，我確實還沒能進行任何拍攝，但是我一直在進行虛擬活動，並且將通過共享#MotherWorks媽媽的照片來慶祝國際婦女節，但遺憾的是沒有展覽，發布活動或氣泡。我正在開設一個名為Corporate Queer的新展覽，希望很快就可以開始拍攝。我對此感到非常興奮。
KF: 讓我們討論一下工作場所，您對支持在職母親的政策有何看法，您認為我們可以如何進一步改變政策？
FF: 對於工作的媽媽來說，Covid真是一場災難，尤其是自僱的媽媽，如果他們在過去三年中生過孩子，就無法要求任何支持，這真是令人震驚。 Rishi Sunak的“感謝媽媽”演講只是對受傷的侮辱。受打擊最大的是女性，招待，零售，清潔和護理等主要工作。這可能會使我們最近在將性別平等帶回工作場所方面取得的進展不大了30年！
KF: 時尚！您還是可持續時尚的支持者，並與組織“時尚中的正義”（Justice in Fashion）一起推廣政策，您對品牌應注意並遵循的主要遊戲變革有何看法？還有更多有趣的地方，您衣櫃中最喜歡的物品是什麼，年齡多大，在哪裡購買？
FF: 我認為時尚品牌必須對所有供應鏈負責，而不能依賴他們無法追踪的第二和第三層供應。我們必須放棄對快時尚的沉迷，而不僅僅是廉價的衣服使用低薪甚至奴役的勞動，我們必須減少製作精良的物品，使工人的熟練工作得到適當的報酬。 B.Corp的生產標準太棒了，希望有一天所有衣服都可以這樣製作。
KF: 最後，食物！！！您能在30分鐘內完成的最好的快速新鮮家常菜是什麼？
FF: 有機鮭魚義大利麵，用西蘭花和奶油乾酪為麵食的麵食，您可以將西蘭花添加到麵食中並一起烹飪最後5分鐘，然後添加切碎的鮭魚和奶油乾酪yummm！加入黑胡椒和白葡萄酒，大人也喜歡它。
Fiona Freund contact via LinkedIn, Instagram, Website.
Thank you for reading this article, please follow me on Instagram @kfyangoconnor for more stories and updates.
Kuofi O'Connor 
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