Bodies in Motion

Bodies in Motion takes us back to Manhattan’s Upper West Side and a culture just beginning to crack, as women dared to want more than the standard choice—children or career. Young, single Sonya works as a science photographer for children’s books and lives in a fanciful world of her own observation. She marries the appealing but sometimes oblivious Victor. Soon Peter is born. At first mother and baby wheel contentedly about the “glens and shadowy places” of nearby Riverside Park. As her son learns to walk, Sonya takes him into a playground to be socialized. Here natural forces and social customs reveal themselves to Sonya, though she no longer packs a camera. Olivia is born. At the sandbox Sonya notices how female and male programming appear and are fostered. Back in her apartment she finds herself sinking into the traditional female role. Will she retain her own curious eye? Will she ever get her camera out of the closet? The culture has changed since 1972 when Bodies in Motion was first published, but the work of raising children remains the same.