Gallery > Biologically Yours: The Edna Gladney Adoption Center

1983
Gelatin Silver Prints
Series of 20

The Edna Gladney Home is an adoption center and home for young unmarried mothers in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bathing Beauties
Silver Gelatin Photograph
24x20"
1983
Mother and Daughters
Silver Gelatin Photograph
14x11"
1983
FOB (Father of Baby)
Silver Gelatin Photograph
14x11"
1983
Delivery Room
Gelatin Silver Photograph
14x11"
1983
Weighing
Silver Gelatin Photograph
14x11"
1983
Labor
Silver Gelatin Photograph
14x11"
1983
Hello and Goodbye
Silver Gelatin Photograph
14x11"
1983

The young women residents are hiding out at Gladney because they are too young to care for a child, but more often, they are doing as they are told by their parents. The young women assume secret hospital names, continue going to school, eat pizza, go to church, make friends, receive counseling and give birth on the Gladney campus. The majority of Gladney residents place their babies for adoption, return to their lives back home with flat stomachs and deeply held memories and feelings.

I proposed the idea to Life Magazine and was sent on assignment. Because of the secrecy, it was very special to get permission to photograph.

I used my own personal birth mother experience as the calling card to gain entrance. The photo essay titled, "Babies Having Babies" was featured in the December, 1983 issue of Life Magazine.