Gathering Stars

Each beginning, a gathering of broken pieces of wonder, reconnecting in constellations. My awareness is the gatherer, holding the stars with open palms.

Gathering Stars is an autobiographical photography project about motherhood, healing, and wonder. Created over six years, this work explores themes of mortality, fertility, longing, and love through photographs and words, beginning with my breast cancer diagnosis as a new mother, through my fertility journey and birth of my second baby, and ending with finding moments of grace in a pandemic with my two daughters. My daughters and I are observers and subjects in these photographs, demonstrating how healing and wonder live side by side during times of uncertainty and abundance.

Gathering Stars is a vivid and intimate inquiry into the fragility and resilience of life, harvesting truths about how nature manifests in the human experience and how finding belonging in our bodies is vital to finding belonging in the world.

Gathering Stars Book $120

Gathering Stars, the book, is a 50-page, 8″ x 10″ hardcover book by Melanie Gordon that features the full collection of photographs from her autobiographical Gathering Stars project, paired with writing, that together share her journey of mothering through breast cancer and beyond. Order your copy to be shipped to your home directly.