The Beauty of Motherhood: Hotaka Matsumura's 'Mother and Child(ren)' Portrait Series

“Mother and Child(ren)” is a series of portrait photography that was started by Hotaka Matsumura in 2016. The goal of the series is to capture the moments between mothers and their children, moments that never change but are sometimes altered in some way.

It was a bright and sunny day in late March, and yet the stars of spring, the sakura or cherry blossom, were yet to bloom. On that day, I was headed to the center of Osaka city, to an area called Minami, which is famous as one of the biggest night entertainment districts in the city, to take photographs for an American company. It was there that I met Secco and her two-year-old son, just a few days before the photo session.

Secco mentioned that they had never taken photos of the two of them together at a photography studio. Once they had tried, but her son had cried and cried, and they had left the studio with nothing to show for it. I invited her to come to my studio for a mother and child portrait session.

On the day of the session, the child was fretting from the very first minutes. I found those moments quite intriguing, as the mother tried to understand the source of his unease. She pretended to feed him on her breast milk, even though her breasts no longer produced it. The son went to his mother’s undershirt and took a nap. Meanwhile, the mother and I talked about fatherhood while he slept.

When the child woke up, he was a completely different person. He was smiling, and the mother was smiling too. The child even kissed his mother, which she said had never happened before. The session continued, and we captured some beautiful moments between the mother and child.

The mother’s love for her child was evident in every photo we took. It was a joy to witness such a strong and pure bond between a mother and her child. I was grateful for the opportunity to capture these moments of beauty, and I hope that these photographs will be treasured by the family for years to come.

In “Mother and Child(ren)”, Hotaka Matsumura has created a series that showcases the beauty of the connection between a mother and her child. These photos are a testament to the power of love and the unbreakable bond that exists between a mother and her child.