Olga Steinepreis’ self portraits unpack the pressure to be the ‘perfect’ mother

Photography has always been an important pastime for Olga Steinepreis, but it wasn’t until she became a mother that the artist really dived into her own world of image making. Starting out by studying the craft online, with the simple hope to take a few skilled family photos with her first-born child, Olga slowly switched to making images with a more conceptual approach over the years.

In her ongoing series I’ve had a dream… the self-taught photographer has been crafting a sequence of self portraits and composite images of her and her family that have a whole lot to say about motherhood. Whether it’s with three hands or three heads, the artist is depicting herself amidst the often unmanageable tasks of motherhood in quite surreal scenes. “The series began with a few individual works that I initially created to process my feelings of being overwhelmed by the endless cycle of daily chores and the pressure to be a perfect mother,” she says. “As I continued working, I realised that these images were all connected by a common theme: the struggle to balance personal identity with the demanding roles of motherhood.”

Using photography as a tool to process the challenges she faces day to day as a mother of three, and a way to reflect on her gendered roles as a parent, Olga is often accompanied by multiple versions of herself in one image. The photographer’s compositions wonderfully visualise the well known truth that parental responsibilities are often too much for just one to bear, her dual appearances speaking to “the very idea of motherhood” Olga says. “It should not have to only be about the unconscious sacrifice of one’s interests in favour of home and family.”

Rather than just an extra pair of hands, some of these repetitions are often inclusions of her past selves in her photographs, living out a fantasy life that’s no longer in reach — sunbathing or scrolling as she does the hoovering. “I immerse my heroine in a surreal dream about her desires, or maybe her thoughts about what she would do now in her old life, before having children. Or maybe, for her, reality has already merged with a dream, and who knows what will happen to her if she continues living at this pace, it remains uncertain. This reference to dreams eventually inspired the project’s title, she explains.

Olga’s photographs usually take a long time for her to visualise. “I’m always thinking about where I can shoot a particular idea to make it feel all the more real,” she says. Before the artist sets up her tripod she styles every corner of the frame to make sure imagination and reality can always be carefully cut together.

Speaking to society’s standards on motherhood, the photographer concludes: “The modern world places huge demands on women... she needs much more understanding and support from both her family and society [...] there needs to be more of a balance.” The photographer aims to continue the series with plenty more surreal scenes she’s got up her sleeve, as she balances her journey through motherhood. “I really hope that soon one head will be enough for me to communicate with everyone, but for now it would be nice to have at least three.”