Jenny Lewis
One Day Young
This year is Portrait Salon’s fifth birthday and in the run up to our events this year we’re going to be blogging about work by photographers who’ve been selected for Portrait Salon in the last four years. We want to highlight some of the background, stories and developments of portraits that have been selected for Portrait Salon, which began in 2011.
We’re starting with Jenny Lewis, whose portrait Liana and Archer (below) was selected for Portrait Salon 2014. Photographer Jenny Lewis has devoted the last five years to photographing Hackney mothers and their newborn babies within 24 hours of their birth. Her aim was to pass on a powerful message that childbirth is a positive experience and nothing to be feared. The project has now been brought together in a new book, One Day Young, which is the latest addition to Hoxton Mini Press’s East London Photo Stories series.
‘It’s really quite simple — I wanted to tell a story about the strength and resilience of women post-childbirth that I feel goes largely unacknowledged in today’s world. To reassure women that childbirth is ok; yes it’s painful but it is a positive pain, one that has purpose and is just part of the journey, a rite of passage into motherhood. To make visible other emotions that are far more powerful: the joy, the overwhelming love and the triumphant victory every new mother feels. In my mind this is the supportive message we should be passing on to future generations rather than paralysing them with fear.’
Liana and Archer
‘Very early on in the project I knew I wanted to concentrate on the first twenty-four hours, when a woman’s body is engulfed by hormones, to capture the unrelenting physicality of the moment, straight from the battlefield. Sweat still glistening on the mothers’ skin, the translucent umbilical cord, freshly severed, and wide-eyed wonder as the women come to terms with the magnitude of what they have achieved and survived.
I leafleted Hackney, the borough where I live to find my recruits. I was clear I did not want to cast people on looks, age, race or class — but to include all who responded. As the series developed over the past five years, the mantra of calm running through the images was impossible to ignore. I find the collection of images quite defiant and beautiful, challenging the expected vision of those first twenty-four hours, a pure celebration of what it means to be a mother.’
Karla and River
Leanh and Lachlan
‘The book contains 40 portraits of mother and child, selected for publication from over 150, which focus on the primitive and hormonal moment of love and protection. As Jenny Lewis says, “My aim was to capture the extraordinary bonding, warmth and strength between mother and infant. In fact the whole range of amazing emotions felt at that time, as the mothering instinct kicks in”.’
Rebecca and Osiris
Kim and Perseus
‘Jenny Lewis has worked as a portrait photographer for the last 15 years. Known internationally for moving with ease between celebrity photography on the covers of magazines such as The Times with the likes of Thandie Newton and Peter Blake to working with the Beastie Boys in New York. Jenny continues to work for her editorial clients but is spending more time on personal work such as the One Day Young series.’
Jenny’s book is available via Hoxton Mini Press – an independent publisher making collectable art books about East London. Jenny is holding a pop-up exhibition at Boxpark on 5th March, details below.
To see more of Jenny’s work visit jennylewis.net
James O Jenkins