Breastfeeding 101

Description

The book includes three introductory essays, one by a psychologist, one by a microbiologist and one by the author.

Professional photographer Leah Hawker shines a spotlight on 101 women sharing their stories about the realities of breastfeeding, an act that’s often hidden from the public eye.

In her book, Breastfeeding 101, she explores personal truths, myths, and attitudes towards this important subject, inevitably raising topical questions about how women feel about themselves, how they are seen by others and how they are marketed to. These candid accounts, each mothers very personal story, are accompanied by portraits of each woman standing tall, feeding her child in public.

“This was an important project to me because the subject is a central axis for current debates and highlights the current influences and outside factors affecting women, breastfeeding and infant health,” says Hawker. “The book tells unique stories and reveals surprisingly uncommon knowledge. My interest, as an image maker, is looking at women’s entire identities and the multitude of facets that these can be composed of. I love that the book has been able to help mothers far and wide”

Leah Hawker is a South African professional photographer. Her work covers birth, pregnancy, newborns, nudes, documentary features, art-based and editorial projects. Her most recent diptych titled “60 days (Pen & Hlomla)”, a reflection on motherhood and infant mortality, showed at the 2018 Sasol New Signatures Awards in the Pretoria Art Museum. The images created during her Breastfeeding 101 project, took her three years to complete and includes mothers from around the world.