Carla Monge Photography

15/02/2022

Hi all, 👋🏻 It is such a strange coincidence, that after over 6 months of not finding the words or the energy to share in this space, precisely today I was invited to join a loop with my fellow artists and ladies. And precisely today, it turns out that it is also International Childhood Cancer Awareness Day. 🎗

Our blog circle brings together every month or so, our experiences of life right now, the joys and the struggles, the realness of it all mixed together. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been reflecting on this month.

“There are gaps in the mesh of the everyday world, and sometimes they open up and you fall through them into Somewhere Else. Somewhere Else runs at a different pace to the here and now, where everyone else carries on. Somewhere Else exists at a delay, so that you can’t quite keep pace…..”
~ Wintering, by Katherine May

I don’t know exactly when, but at some point I fell into Somewhere Else. Somewhere Else is a terribly painful place to be, but also a humblingly beautiful one in it’s own strange way. Somewhere Else has brought us to our knees, but also to our best selves as parents, as partners, as siblings… as family. Somewhere Else has shown me some of the noblest souls, young and old, that I have ever encountered. Somewhere Else is a constant reminder to notice everything around me with humbling gratitude. And yet, how easy it is to forget that lesson, and to need to be taught it all over again.

Now, as the first snowdrops begin to emerge from the sleepy winter soil, we begin to catch a glimpse of a possible end to this long Winter of ours, the possibility of the first signs of Spring. Spring will come with it’s own new set of challenges, no doubt, but it is a comfort in itself just to feel the warmth of it coming….

Next up is my wonderful friend Kirsty Larmour.

04/06/2021

When he plays, he leads the way and we all play with him, and when he’s tired and needs to lie down, we all lie with him too. We have learnt to “go with his flow”…. this is 6 months of chemotherapy for him…

He is doing amazingly well with it all, watching him and all he has gone through is truly a humbling lesson in resilience….

Welcome to Artifact Motherhood. We are a group of artists and mothers from around the world sharing stories of our joys and struggles of motherhood. A link to the blog is in my bio.

Follow our loop around to each photographer. Next up is the lovely @ London, United Kingdom

16/05/2021

Nature is the best playground...

Mateo is severely immunocompromised due to his chemotherapy, so they hadn’t set foot in a playground for months.... They partly understand why, and partly they don’t, but they have embraced our ‘new normal’ anyway... kids are so good that way...



@ Wandsworth Common

15/05/2021

That feeling of HOME...
{can you see it in the frame of the movie behind me?}

Movie + siesta + rainy day = *pure bliss*

*Before I might have removed the stain on his jumper, but now I realise it’s part of the story - it reminds me how much he loves our homemade fruit juice popsicles right now, and the absolute mess he makes when he eats them! 😋🙃



@ London, United Kingdom

12/05/2021

“The most important thing is to remember the most important thing”

10 de la noche, me subo ya a dormir después de un largo día. Tachados del calendario todos los medicamentos de ese día, administrada la quimio de la noche, voy repasando en mi cabeza que no nos haya faltado nada. Y al pasar por su habitación, me encuentro con este regalo de última hora... ella tal cual, dormida al pie de la cama, para poder leer su libro a escondidas a la luz del pasillo, con su querido “Teddy” bajo el brazo. Estos son los pequeños ‘regalos de la vida’, los que están por todas partes, si nos fijamos...

Y vosotros? Cuales son las pequeñas grandes historias del día a día de vuestra familia? Es fácil pasarlas por alto, cuando estamos cansados después del trajín del día, pero haberlas haylas, siempre.

El 24 de mayo vuelve otra edición de Retratos de Familia, 3 semanas conmigo en para ayudaros a ver y capturar RETRATOS QUE CUENTAN HISTORIAS, esas pequeñas grandes historias, únicas de vuestra familia.

*Teneis el link en mi bio🔝

15/12/2020

It all started with a slight limp, but something in the back of my mind kept telling me it was not normal that he was limping for no reason.... from there, we are now suddenly and unexpectedly on a path we never expected to find ourselves on. The beginning of a journey that has shaken us to our core, and put everything else into perspective.

Our little boy Mateo has been diagnosed with a very rare illness of the immune system called LCH, a very rare form of childhood cancer. An illness that thankfully the doctors tell us is highly treatable with the correct course of medication.

The first time I heard those words my whole world fell apart, I have never had such an intensely visceral reaction to anything in my life.... our children‘s pain is our pain, even more so when we can understand the full extent of it, and they cannot...

Mateo has started chemotherapy now, and he is doing amazingly well with it all. He is one tough, resilient and joyful cookie. As parents we had no idea how to even start walking this path at first, but in the words of Rumi; “As you begin to walk on the way, the way appears...”

And it is true, with each step of the way the path is appearing before us, and it turns out we can walk it together as a family, with positivity and smiles on our faces, holding Mateo tight and singing cheerful songs to him throughout all the procedures and medications that need to be administered….

Some days are harder than others for sure, but all the days are part of this journey we’ll be walking on together for some time. All days are made up of a whole lot of love, joy and laughter, and inevitably some tears shed in-between.

Thank you for reading this difficult part of our family’s story. I know it is difficult to talk about, I know it is difficult to read. If I can spread some awareness of these relatively rare illnesses, if I can stand beside somebody else going through a difficult time, then at least that is a reason for me to share. I know I was able to spot some initial symptoms in my son thanks to other mothers on IG who have shared their own stories before me, and so here is our little grain of sand and the beginning of this journey of ours. @ London, United Kingdom

25/11/2020

Our number one family self-care is going out for a walk... what’s yours?
The last of the Autumn walks from the Cotswolds, a few weekends ago 🍂
@ Cotswolds

24/11/2020

Today he turns 2 ❤️
f/3.2 1/160s ISO 12800!

24/11/2020

Today he is 2 ❤️
f/3.2 1/160s ISO 12800!

02/10/2020

Season of Motherhood - There's Beauty in the Juggle

A project I share with some wonderful female artists across the world, which inspires me each time we share our art and how it is influenced by our views on motherhood... take a peak on my blog if you'd like to follow our journey.

Welcome to Season of Motherhood September 2020   Season of Motherhood is part of the Artifact Motherhood project, just one image and a small snippet of what this season of motherhood looks like for each one of us.  Artifact Motherhood is a collaboration of female artists from

29/09/2020

Parte pianista, parte científico y matemático, y en otra gran parte soñador...
Fotografíar a mi familia en nuestro día a día se ha convertido en un estilo de vida para mí. Un estilo de vida que me brinda el regalo de mirarles con ojos nuevos y curiosos todos los días, para captar la esencia de los pequeños niños que son hoy, y de las grandes personas en las que se van convirtiendo....
Este espíritu y esa mirada curiosa es lo que intento transmitiros en mi curso de Retratos de Familia, para que podáis dejarles también vuestro legado personal a los vuestros.
Ya estan abiertas las plazas en !
(Tenéis el link en mi bio) 🔝

Part pianist, part scientist and mathematician, and one whole lot of a dreamer.... a whole world awaits this little guy 💙