“Italian photographer Francesca Cesari brings us into the intimate space of a mother lulling her child to sleep with breastmilk.
Despite this gentle act being everyday and universal, it still is often considered to be private, taking place only behind closed doors.
Cesari photographs the mother and child alone in their rooms, lit only by the warm glow of daylight, delivering the scenes with an intense tenderness.
Cesari’s in situ portraits bear the patience and quiet of a mother’s soothing presence.
She says that she focuses on women’s dual roles as powerful and protective figures who are also sensitive and sometimes fragile.
Through her images, we see the passage of life and love from mother to child – a relationship that each of us has experienced in at least one form.
In the Room speaks to the unending circle of life, and the greatness to be found in small gestures.”
Katherine Oktober Matthews
GUP International Photography Magazine – Issue #53
http://www.gupmagazine.com/portfolios/francesca-cesari/in-the-room
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A secluded and silent place where a mother puts to sleep her child through breast-feeding.
The transition between waking and sleeping as the fulfillment takes over every resistance and distraction.
The mother’s solid presence consciously supporting the baby’s passage into unconsciousness,
renewing the ritual everlasting gestures of former generations.
A suspended moment of devotion and tenderness coexisting with the alienating repetitiveness of a routine.
The atmosphere and the characters of a fundamental and exclusive experience of maternity.
La dimensione appartata e silenziosa del luogo in cui una madre
addormenta il bambino attraverso l’allattamento al seno.
Il passaggio tra la veglia e il sonno dei piccoli, col progressivo ammorbidirsi del corpo
e l’abbandono di ogni resistenza, gioco e ostinazione.
La fisicita’ solida della donna, che accompagna con consapevolezza questa transizione
verso l’incoscienza e che rinnova i gesti rituali ed intuitivi delle generazioni che l’hanno preceduta.
Una parentesi sospesa dove la devozione e la tenerezza convivono con il risvolto alienante
di una routine che si ripete innumerevoli volte.
Questi i temi principali che hanno ispirato le immagini per descrivere l’atmosfera e i protagonisti
di un momento fondamentale ed esclusivo dell’esperienza della maternità.
Gallery