What is it like to be a mother? According to the big book it’s the most wonderful thing in the world, but what is it really like to live in a crayon-decorated flat imbued with the smell of breast milk? Photographer Hana Knížová’s Mothers series offers a bittersweet insight into the role of a mother from the postpartum period to young adolescence. Messy hair, sore nipples, and constant company—but let the pictures do the talking!
Where did the inspiration to start the Mothers series come from? What really is your message?
The project took shape very naturally, I didn’t even think of it as a series at the beginning. As such things happen, more and more of my friends started having children. At the time, I wasn’t really into the romantic aesthetics surrounding pregnancy and breastfeeding, the overly happy or even inexplicably sexualized posing. I decided to take a few photos from my own perspective, as this state can also be authentically captured with all the best and worst that comes with it.
Being a mother is a multi-faceted role: she is a caregiver, friend, housewife, working woman, and much more. The role of the ‘new mother’ is often portrayed in the series. What have you personally gained as a woman, as a creator, and as a friend from the photoshoots? What do you see differently in these roles?
Since most of my subjects and I are close to each other and I photograph them quite often, I can see them change. I usually notice a particular mix of self-confidence and lightness that they have gained through motherhood. Some of their personality traits come to the fore, others disappear completely in this new mother-child dynamic. It is important to note that I have noticed a huge shift in the portrayal of motherhood in recent years. Social media is a major factor in this—women are shaping their own platforms and deciding for themselves what content they want to share. They are not so dependent on the media and its gatekeepers. I also noticed that women of my generation were having children in their thirties, but nowadays it seems that they often decide to have children in their early twenties once again.
The photos sometimes show funny moments, sometimes intimate ones. How does the photoshoot work in practice? How easy is it to work with children and mothers?
It’s not easy at all, but it’s totally worth it! Moms are great and relaxed, but if the kid decides that we won’t be taking photos that day, that’s the end of the story right there. That’s why I tend to leave more time, do multiple visits, and have zero expectations, because unlike a commissioned shoot, this is a genre that can only be planned to a certain extent. Sometimes I’m just observing and have nothing when I leave, other times I’m capturing wonderful moments that I wasn’t expecting.
Today, the nakedness of the female body is measured by a strong double standard. While women are gaining more and more freedom and confidence to show off their normal, changing bodies, Instagram reacts to the sight of a nipple with a ban. How do you see it? How difficult is it to make a series about motherhood while it’s still taboo to breastfeed in public or to show the difficulties of motherhood?
Oh, this has always been a big problem in my work. It’s incredibly frustrating and I even got a temporary ban for breaking the rules... It’s not only difficult to acknowledge this because nudity is the most natural state of the body, but also because much more harmful content is always just a few clicks away. I have to censor my images on social media and I often find myself subconsciously taking this into account when composing the photos, and I hate that it’s an impediment to my creative freedom. My website and Twitter are the online platforms where I don’t need these corrections.
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