fatherhood . a community about fathers playing active roles in their kids' lives
project purpose
This Fatherhood project began over three years ago, and it has grown into a very moving personal assignment. At the outset, I thought I’d post an ad on craigslist.org looking for fathers playing active roles in their children’s lives. However, I soon learned that these Dads were all around me - fathers of my kids’ friends, friends of mine, people I work with, the head of my kid’s parent teacher organization, coaches, grandfathers at the park.
When I first became a father, I thought a lot about what society expects of Dads - How intimate are we supposed to be with our children? How much time do we spend away from the home? How are the parenting roles in the family played out? Growing up, we always saw examples in the media of how Dads were clueless - they didn’t understand kids, they couldn’t cook, they always messed up the house, never cleaned it. These days family life has changed - it’s not as easy for one parent to stay home while the other works. New schedules have brought new responsibilities.
And fathers are doing it. I asked one Dad I was shooting what he did with his kids: “Pretty much everything. My wife is a firefighter and when she is at work for 24 hours at a time, I need to be the one to make the dinner, give the kids a bath, get them off to school … and then go to work and run my business.” He said this with such ease, without any hesitation or regret.
It’s that feeling that I want to depict with this project - the simple ease at which many fathers today are just doing what they need to do - contrary to the mold that they grew in. My goal is not so much to prove to women what men are capable of, but more to show fathers what fathers are capable of … so they don’t miss it.
A young father once told me it was six months before he tried to take his young baby for a walk by himself. He didn’t think he was capable of being alone with her.
When I first became a father, I thought a lot about what society expects of Dads - How intimate are we supposed to be with our children? How much time do we spend away from the home? How are the parenting roles in the family played out? Growing up, we always saw examples in the media of how Dads were clueless - they didn’t understand kids, they couldn’t cook, they always messed up the house, never cleaned it. These days family life has changed - it’s not as easy for one parent to stay home while the other works. New schedules have brought new responsibilities.
And fathers are doing it. I asked one Dad I was shooting what he did with his kids: “Pretty much everything. My wife is a firefighter and when she is at work for 24 hours at a time, I need to be the one to make the dinner, give the kids a bath, get them off to school … and then go to work and run my business.” He said this with such ease, without any hesitation or regret.
It’s that feeling that I want to depict with this project - the simple ease at which many fathers today are just doing what they need to do - contrary to the mold that they grew in. My goal is not so much to prove to women what men are capable of, but more to show fathers what fathers are capable of … so they don’t miss it.
A young father once told me it was six months before he tried to take his young baby for a walk by himself. He didn’t think he was capable of being alone with her.
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