The Photograph I Always Want to Take

There is one photograph I always want to take during a newborn session.

Not the baby curled and sleeping.
Not the mother gazing down.

The hands.

A father's hands holding a newborn — enormous and careful and completely certain — while everything else in the room is uncertain.

Those first days at home with a new baby are unlike anything else.

A new mother who doesn't yet know what to do with this small person she has been handed.
Who is exhausted in a way she has never been exhausted before.
Who hasn't slept.
Who worries.
Who wants, more than anything, to be the best mother she can possibly be.

Whose body hurts.
Whose whole self is rearranging.
Who sometimes feels completely alone in the universe — even in a room full of people.

Whose own parents may be far away.
Who has only just stopped being someone's child herself — and is now responsible for another life entirely.

In those moments, there is nothing more important than the person beside her.

Not always words.
Sometimes just a look.
A steadiness.
An energy that says: I've got you. We've got this.

That is enough to move mountains.

And when I photograph a father holding his newborn — those huge hands, that quiet certainty — I am photographing that too.

The thing that doesn't always get said.
But that makes everything possible.

If you're expecting a baby and thinking about a newborn session in London or Bromley, I'd love to hear from you. See full collections at investment or get in touch.