Photographer Ivette Ivens

Photographer Ivette Ivens

Published 2015 in "Breastfeeding Goddesses" book

188 Page, Full-color, hardcover, 11x11 inches

(http://www.ivetteivens.com/breastfeedinggoddesses)

"I realized how divine and powerful a woman is, and I had to capture it with my camera,” ~Ivette Ivens

Biography:
Ivette was born in Radviliskis, Lithuania, 1990 Jan 29. She is currently living near Chicago with her husband, Todd, and two sons. Her mother was a photographer, so she found herself experimenting often. Upon moving to het States, she enrolled herself in classes at the Art Institute of Schaumburg, and a couple of workshops before figuring out what she really wanted to do with her love for photography. Her career really kicked off when she started the famous "Breastfeeding Goddesses" series. In 2015 it blossomed into a book that is now available for purchase. (https://www.facebook.com/pg/IvetteIvens/about/)


Artist Statement:

“Every time I nurse my baby with my burp-spotted shirt on and messy hair, I still feel like some kind of superhero, and nursing is my super power. I want people to look at it as if it was a cat nursing her baby kittens. Or any other mammal, if you’re not a cat person. Forget the covering up, nursing in a public bathroom, age restrictions. It’s between a mother and her child.”she told The Huffington Post. (https://www.romper.com/p/these-empowering-photos-help-destigmatize-breastfeeding-show-how-beautiful-it-really-is-24268)

“When I started taking these photos, I learned a lot. For some women breastfeeding does not come easy, so they go an extra mile to do it. I’ve shot breastfeeding women who have diabetes, conceived their baby via a surrogate, have extremely busy work schedule, etc.”

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/moms-break-down-breastfeeding-stigma-with-ethereal-photos_us_5841a62ae4b09e21702e3f63)

Elements of art:
Time and motion are expressed in the implied motion of the city behind the mothers sitting in the middle of a busy street as they breastfeed their children. This illusion that the mothers are sitting in the middle of a busy city street is a profound message that there is a need to normalize breastfeeding in today's societal views.  
The focal point is of the breastfeeding mothers. Creating a shallow depth of field and using a backdrop of the city is most likely how the photographer created this effect. The focal point is on the breastfeeding mothers, yet the city behind them creates the dialogue of the right's for mothers to breastfeed in public.  
 
Connection:
For me, breastfeeding is a natural and beautiful necessity of life that has been faced with hassles, discrimination, and social harassment that has become very unwelcoming and create hurdles for mothers today. I feel this photograph is a very important statement of what women are facing in the 21st century. Breastfeeding woman have been forced to leave restaurants, breastfeed in bathrooms, and have been discriminated against in the professional world.