The 40 week project

Never before had I attempted self-portraiture. I found it extremely hard and time-consuming. Living in the instant-effort instant-result age, this was bordering on boring. With so many wonderful subjects around why would I choose myself? 

Then we got the happy news of the impending arrival of our little one! And, just like that, this self-portrait personal project took off around the same time. I was excited thinking about sharing the 9 months BTS (behind the scenes) with my baby. That gave me a purpose and I plunged head long into self-portraiture. 

The first step was to string together bits and pieces of my journey into motherhood, like my aversion to anything with caffeine, travel outside of India, the never-ending work, my attempts to remain fit throughout the period and so on. I would fall off the wagon time and again, but the fear of missing out on an important milestone or moment made me get back on track. 

When I see these images now, after more than a year of my daughter's birth, I feel I could have done way better in terms of using available light. The shots could have been staged in a less obvious way. But I have also realized that we need to conclude and deliver the stories that we want to tell and not be in a perennial search for the "perfect timing". 

So this is how I conclude this chapter of my life and continue capturing moments of my everyday on the other side of pregnancy :)