According to city photographer Sharadha Gopalakrishnan, pictures have the power to attract and convey a message. To create awareness about normalising breastfeeding in public, she has done a photoshoot. Through the series, she hopes to reach more mothers and teach the next generation that breastfeeding is a natural act.

“During my pregnancy, I read a lot about breastfeeding and I looked forward to it to feed my baby. But unfortunately, I lost my baby. Also, I had this plan of doing a photoshoot with my baby. Last week, we celebrated breastfeeding week (August 1-7), and I did the shoot then. I got in touch with Raji, a mother whom I had worked with earlier. She could resonate with the same idea and we worked on this project. Raji wasn’t comfortable initially, but as the shoot went on it was fun,” Sharadha begins the conversation.

The photographer has worshipped her parents from childhood and believes that they are the real gods. “Before the shoot, I spoke to many mothers to understand what was their feeling when breastfeeding. They all felt that breastfeeding is a divine process and I too had the same emotion in my mind. I wanted to connect divinity with the idea of normalising breastfeeding in public. I thought of bringing a godly feel to the shoot and the first picture that came to my mind was lotus and decided to recreate that. Making the lotus was the most challenging part, I got in touch with a friend of mine who is an art director. I showed him the reference of a calendar image and we created the set at my studio in Shenoy Nagar,” she explains.

Sharadha believes that as an artist, she has the responsibility to create awareness through stories. “This project is something I perceived in my mind and I wasn’t sure how people are going to respond to it. But to my surprise, I have been receiving a lot of good responses. Sneha did the makeup, Lakshmi was the costume designer and the art department was handled by Chandru and Rahul,” she remarks.