One day young by Jenny Lewis

“One Day Young” is a collection of images of women at home with their newborns, taken within the first 24 hours of life. Nothing is posed, polished, manipulated or retouched; the images capture the powerful raw beauty of women. Jenny Lewis has been working on this moving photographic series for over four years.

Jenny, herself a mother-of-two, began the series  as a celebration of motherhood and since then has captured the unique mother-child bond in more than 100 East London families in these poignant portraits, each taken within the first 24 hours of life.

The women she chooses to photograph have not been cast for their looks, race, age or class but are all strangers who responded to leaflets posted throughout Hackney, London. These portraits focus on a primitive moment of love and protection.

“I wanted to tell a positive story of motherhood. By photographing women in the first 24 hours after giving birth I felt I was capturing them at their most truthful, before they had begun to worry about practicalities or how they looked. And by seeing ordinary women – not cast for their looks, age or race – I hope other expectant mothers can find someone they identify with.

Because the pictures are in a woman’s own home and not the unfamiliar environment of a hospital, she is still very much herself. And the unvarnished image of post-partum shape, often red and swollen infant is an important part of the story.

Often I am the first non-medical person a mother and her child sees before even other siblings or grandparents. The shots are powerful because of their simplicity: they capture that unique moment when a woman is still functioning with her primitive brain, eyes sparkling, in a baby bubble.”

The strength, pride and pure joy I have witnessed time and time again doing this project have informed my photographic practice and have left me incredibly inspired and grateful for the experience“.