Photovoice gallery

Lotti's room

Lotti's new flat. She had moved out from her parents' home. She was struggling to manage on her own, fighting debt and exploited by men who saw easy pickings in her disability allowance. The bareness of the room mirrors her own feelings about her life.

Her daughter still lives with her parents, who have assumed legal responsibility for her with Lotti's agreement. Asked to choose the photo she liked best, Lotti picked one of her and her daughter. 'It's special', she said.

Deidre's son's car, taken from a window of her flat. Deidre was proud to see him getting on in life and making his own way.

Meg's house

'My new house. It's special to me, it's mine. I know Craig (her young son) will always have somewhere to live when I die.'

Connie's twins

Connie took thirty one snaps of her twins, Bob and David. This was one of the few not of them. Connie took it to show their Easter presents. Bob and David feature in the photograph as virtual subjects. The presents, like the twins, are identical.

Another of Jez' streetscapes. This is the pub where 'me and Darryl had something to eat and Darryl was sick.'

Judy's hamster

'My hamster. He died. I liked having him, he was company.' Judy gets lonely and depressed. Her son, now eleven, has been fostered with her sister since he was a baby. Judy feels his absence as a hole in her life, even though she knows and accepts the arrangement is best for all of them. She searches out company, any company, and tries to forget what might have been.

Judy's wall

Either side of a print of a cat at a window hang a picture of her son and another of herself receiving a certificate from the Lord Mayor. Achievements. Worthy enough to hang on a wall and important enough to be photographed.

Emma's shop

Emma's partner, Keith, took charge of the camera, just as he took charge of most things. Aside from some photographs of her friends at the support group, most of the rest featured Emma herself, taken by Keith, or Keith's friends, taken by Keith. Emma wrested the camera back to take this snap of 'my favourite shop'. Emma was partial to buns. She'd given them up, after falling pregnant, for a more healthy diet.

Chloe's patch

New house, new garden. Pip was thrilled at having moved into a new house with a safe garden, where Chloe, her two-year old, could play, with two little girls next door as playmates for her. Pip's photographs showed Chloe outside, in the sun, with her toys and new friends, having fun, enjoying the freedom and the fresh air.

Lorna's cats

Almost all Lorna's photos were taken at her last meeting with her children before they went for adoption. She'd dressed in her finest for their farewell so that Tim (five) and Trixy (three) would have a memory of her as a smart, attractive, competent mother.

Afterwards she used up her film on her cats. All she had left to love. Tabby and two kittens. Like Lorna and... No more.

June's break

Wentworth Castle, Barnsley. The site of Northern College and the venue for a two-day residential course – 'Men in our lives' – for mothers from the Supported Learning Project. All of June's photographs were taken during these two days. In her early thirties, the mother of six children, all now fostered or adopted, it was the first time June had ever spent a night away from home. Holiday snaps.