On Divorce

Few of us are without some relationship to divorce: we may be the children, parents or grandparents of divorcees, the colleagues or friends; this may be what we went through a decade ago or what lies ahead of us for the 2030s or 40s; it might be what we are just concluding - at this very moment and in intense turmoil - or something that we will need to set in motion in the coming days.

Divorcees are, like all of us, only grown-up children, stumbling in the dark, trying to make sense of their choices, beset by blind impulses, illuminated by occasional grace, human all too human. One of the best things we can do in the face of our difficulties is to turn pain into art - of a sort which others can refer to, at moments of particular isolation and befuddlement, to recover their poise and sense of community.

This documentary project insists that divorce should never be thought of as shameful, morally simple, abstract or even necessarily tragic. It is as much a part of who we are as love.

On Divorce is the debut title in a new portrait photography series by The School of Life. The photographs and accompanying texts were captured and recorded over two years by British photographer Harry Borden (himself divorced). The images are a mirror that can help to correct some of what we think we know of divorce and pull us in a different direction: towards compassion, identification, curiosity, self-reflection and empathy.