A Theater-Going Habit

A Theater-Going Habit

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A Theater-Going Habit
A Theater-Going Habit
Refugee Mother
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Refugee Mother

Hard photos

Jun 17, 2025
∙ Paid

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A Theater-Going Habit
A Theater-Going Habit
Refugee Mother
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I am costuming a character who is a mother of a baby and has had to leave her home. This character has a title, that I am having trouble saying out loud and in print, Refugee Mother.

I have a crisis of confidence every time I pick up a script. That I can be entrusted with anyone’s story is in question whenever I begin to design a costume. Eventually, I do enough research and try really hard to get to know a person, so that I feel that I have at least put forth an honorable amount of effort into the attempt.

This much struggle makes it very hard to feel okay trying to understand and recreate these people’s experiences, though.

These are the “most popular” images for Refugee Mother on Magnum’s site. Magnum is the first stop, always. It is especially suited for war stories, because the photographers collective was founded to make sense of the apocalyptic war the photographers experienced firsthand. Curiosity and hope in the face of devastation. That is the job.

Israel, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China and Nigeria. 1949, 2017, 1968, 1948 and 1970. Robert Capa, Moises Saman, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Abbas.

Respectful distance … I r…

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