Capturing Mother's Love

I was determined to create a fine art portrait with my mother and my daughter. Mama lives in Ukraine and we haven’t seen each other for 1.5 years because of travel restrictions. And we all know how rapidly things can change our lives in this world.

This photograph is about MOTHER's LOVE and the BEAUTY of OUR AGE. On the day of baptizing our daughter, I said “It’s the best time” referring to the innocence and cuteness of baby age. And a wise mama of grown-up kids replied: “Every age of your child is the best time”. I will never forget this phrase. I wanted to reflect on it in a photograph for myself and my mother, who enjoys the double happiness of seeing her grown-up daughter and the joyful moment of having a grandchild. This is the precious moment and her inner happiness. When I gave her this photo in print a day before her departure (she saw it for the first time) with tears of happiness she said, “No words, thank you!”

This photo is about the mother, her strength, her incredible abilities to protect, guide, and her endless love, at any age. It is about us, powerful mothers and simply women, enjoying our age, gaining self-confidence, and sharing the joy of our life.

Certainly, we have the same photograph on our wall in the house now. Every time I walk it by, I am grateful to my mother for everything she did for me in this life. And the incredible power of mother's love feels my heart and the soul.

Behind the scenes

Although I retouched quite a bit of the background and tiny details, my aim was to preserve the real us at this time: no skin retouching.

Since it was a self-portrait, it took me about 20 frames to manage to capture one usable image. Either we looked elsewhere, the little one was improvising with posing and mimics or I was simply not fast enough to position myself before the camera releases the shutter. I had to run from the camera and pose in 10 seconds countdown 🤪

Photography location: VUS Photography & Art Studio in Deggendorf district.

With love and care,

yours Elena