Erica thinks of the speakers she heard. Some had stories of blatant male abuse, but others spoke of the creeping insidiousness that made women subjugated, self-censoring, wondering whether it was worth making a big deal of a hand on a knee. She’d thought about how she and Marcus, good people who believed in equality – of course they did! – had slumped into him-going-to-work-her-mostly-staying-at-home because of the mathematics of it. He earned more, and his career paid the mortgage while hers was their frittering money, for meals out and holidays and covering the cost of the we’ve-rented-out-a-country-house-for-the-weekend fortieth birthday parties that their friends were starting to invite them to. They’d made a decision about this; it wasn’t because she was the woman, it was because it made practical sense. And now Erica could kick herself, because the only reason it makes practical sense is because the world is so skewed in Marcus’s favour. And she has, in her acceptance, been complicit.

‘I thought about the world that Tom is growing up into,’ she says, ‘I thought about what I was doing to make it a place that’s safe for everyone.’

Marcus nods, and then, before she can say more, says, ‘I’ll put Tom to bed.’

Erica knows Marcus is expecting her to do it, because he has been in sole charge of their child for all of ten hours. But she lets him go, and then she tops up her wine, ignores the dishwasher, and goes to run herself a bath. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

Part 4: Distance

Part 4: Distance

The distance between photographer and subject may not need to be great. You don’t need to show the whole. You can trust the viewer to fill in the spaces behind, around and between. A photograph of head and shoulders won’t make a viewer wonder whether the subject has legs. Get as close as you need to to show what it is you want to show. Remember, the most interesting part of anyone is likely to be their face.

Veronica Moon, Women in Photographs (unpublished)

‘Margaret Thatcher on Parliament Hill’

Political Photograph of the Year, 1979

Veronica Moon

Exhibition section: High Profile

Camera: OM-1

Film: 200 ASA

First published: Observer, 1979

You probably recognise Margaret Thatcher here – but can you think of another image that is quite so relaxed, or informal?

Margaret (later Baroness) Thatcher was already one of the most recognisable women of the late twentieth century when Veronica Moon photographed her. She had recently become Prime Minister of Great Britain and the first female head of state in Europe, Moon was commissioned to take a cover for the Observer magazine.