Carried is a black and white medium format photography series that honors the dedication of my mother and grandmother to motherhood and their own identity. This work, while a personal homage to the women who raised me, is is also a celebration of the devoted and resilient mothers who care for others but still nurture their own strength and desires. My mother, Myrza Dynah Oviedo, is not a woman defined solely by motherhood. She is a strong, educated, and driven professional who has dedicated her life to improving the public education system for underrepresented children in Tucson. All the while, as a single mother, she made sure I was never overlooked, always loved, and always provided for. In contrast, this series also honors my grandmother, Olga Oviedo, whose identity was deeply rooted in motherhood – not as a limitation, but as a calling. She was a single mother of six who nurtured not only her children but also others around her. The embodiment of a caregiver, her sacrifices were not a loss of identity but a signal of strength and the fullest expression of self. Moreover, this work reflects on how they carried me. How their choices, their sacrifices, and their love allowed me to become my own woman. In all that they give to me, they still managed to flourish. The series includes my mother’s C-section scar, my baby teeth she saved, and intimate portraits of all of us. These images serve as quiet echoes of devotion and my gratitude for everything they have done to shape the woman, friend, lover, and artist I am today.

Carried aligns with the belief that there is no singular “woman's gaze”. It honors those who have chosen motherhood and passed on their wisdom, but it does not idealize motherhood as a be-all end-all. Instead, it embraces the fullness of womanhood and motherhood: the beauty, the pain, the choice, the legacy, and the resilience of women.