Rachel Papo

It's Been Pouring: The Dark Secret of the First Year of Motherhood Rachel Papo

A sensitively narrated photo project about postpartum depression

Postpartum depression is in many ways no longer taboo; it is an affliction on the lips of most pregnant women as something they fear, and which they have been told counseling and medications can help. And yet - when Rachel Papo experienced it herself after the birth of both her children, and when she interviewed other women in the midst of their suffering - she realized that there is something we are still not seeing, or are only willing to look at askance. With It's Been Pouring, Papo sets out to capture the voices of mothers in their darkest moments, while interweaving them with her own. This collection of photographs and interviews shines a direct light on their experiences, exposing the unbearable tension that exists between the miracle of birth and the horror that follows, leading the viewer through a narrative of despair.