IT'S NOT FOREVER
CREDITS
Caring for a newborn baby is one of the most emotionally tumultuous times in anyone’s life. A mother can feel like a robot, unable to connect with the outside world, and like she has lost a part of herself. Ani Zur (1979, Ukraine) documents this formative period in her series It’s Not Forever, in which even the title is an assurance to new mothers everywhere.
Zur considers photography to be like therapy, documenting her own experiences for the series, in which she states: “the frequency of inner emotional changes is too high to call this period ‘happy’.” Zur felt as if her personality changed, even though what was happening to her was completely natural, and photographing this series allowed her to transform from a worried mother to an empathetic spectator. The images form a sentimental and intimate documentation, conveying a range of emotion, especially the ones rarely spoken about: anxiety, exhaustion and exasperation. Zur’s photo series is reassurance to women, that this difficult time will pass and that one day soon they, like she, will look back with nostalgia.