London-based photographer Jenny Lewis’s ongoing series, One Day Young, continues with more beautiful portraits of mothers and their one-day-old babies. Shot in the comfort of each woman’s home, these photos are one of the first they’ll take with their newly born baby. You can just feel the love and warmth exuding from these photos as each woman gently cradles her baby in her arms. “These are, by far, the most natural portraits I have ever taken,” Lewis said. “The women are just themselves with nothing to prove, they have such a sense of pride and strength.”
As Lewis told us back in November, each of the photos comes with an equally touching story. “All the subjects who have taken part mean so much to me…There are so many stories – single mothers, women struggling with older handicapped children, and a young couple who had only just met and got a little over-excited on New Years Eve. All of these stories are entwined for me with the images and I find it impossible to single any one out.”
Since our post, Lewis has tracked over 50,000 visits to her site, not counting all the shares on Facebook and Twitter. She’s also gotten some unexpected feedback from strangers on the street saying, “I was sitting at lecture by Susan Bright at The Photographers Gallery late in the summer and a girl next to me saw my card and said, ‘Are you the photographer who shot One Day Young? I’ve just read a blog post in China about it.’ I had no idea it had reached that far.
“In fact, Susan Bright, a curator who I greatly admire, said she was made aware of the project by a friend of hers sharing a link on Facebook in New York. It’s pretty incredible how a series can take on a life of its own on the Internet.”
Here are some new faces to the project. Lewis is now working with Hackney Homebirth team to find even more new mothers to photograph.
