My Mum’s Nighties

A5 ZINE

This project, My Mum’s Nighties is a visual response by Moose Azim to the loss of her last surviving parent. After the sudden death of her mother, Moose had to quickly clear out the Shepherd’s Bush Housing Trust flat in London, preparing it for the next tenant.

Within one and a half weeks, Moose photographed her mother’s belongings, capturing the somatic traces of items like fans, slippers, watches, folded plastic carrier bags, and old receipts. These items held silence and shock. 

“I was quite transfixed by the number of nighties my mum owned. She wore a nightie every day, even during the daytime, throughout my childhood. I wonder now if this was influenced by my dad, who also wore his pajamas all the time. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘pajama’ came from India, which is also where my dad was from; it is a borrowed Urdu word, which was incidentally my dad’s mother tongue.”

This intimate body of work questions the significance of the belongings we leave behind after death and reflect on the stories embedded within these objects.

 “I found hardly any traces of her bond with me.”

Each copy is hand bound with a unique cyanotype strip created using the net curtains from Moose’s Mothers home and each also contains a 42cm x 29.7cm poster. The A5 Zine can be purchased here. A copy of the zine can be viewed at the Photobook Cafe 4 Leonard Circus EC2A 4DQ