A local photographer is taking on a unique project to highlight the relationship shared between twins.
Tamara Poppit of Hudson Wren Portraits has put out a call for any sets of twins willing to be photographed for her photo essay, “Wombmates.” Participants are asked to provide a $100 donation, which will go to Jeneece Place at the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, with a goal of raising $2,500. Donors will receive a $100 credit towards any of the photos they might want to purchase.
For Poppit, the project and the foundation are close to her heart.
“I have twins of my own, I lived through it,” she said. “Our babies were born at 35 weeks and had to stay at the (VGH) neonatal unit for two weeks. We were lucky that we didn’t have to utilize the units at Jeneece Place, but many people do.”
Poppit said twins are considered a high-risk pregnancy and that they often come early, leading many families to need the accommodations available at Jeneece Place.
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Since the call went out, 59 people have come foreword with their stories and now she’s working on paring them down to 25.
“It’s not going to be easy,” she said, “There are so many good stories.”
One woman, who had lost several pregnancies, ended up incorporating “Raine” and “Bowe” into her twins’ names, to commemorate her rainbow babies.
Another woman had used a sperm donor in Barbados, and asked to be notified if her twins had any siblings, only to discover when she came back to Victoria that there were siblings in town.
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“Every parent has amazing stories like this,” Poppit said. “But it’s special to have twins.”
The portraits and stories will come out in a coffee table book, with some proceeds from the book also going to Jeneece Place.
Poppit hopes to shoot the portraits in August and have the book published in October.
For more information you can head to hudsonwren.com/wombmates.
