Forty portraits from the series are published in the book ‘One Day Young’ by Jenny Lewis (2015).
112pp hardcover, quarter-bound, gold foiled, 199 x 139mm.

The portrait series One Day Young consists of 150 portraits, taken over five years. The women are intimately captured back in their own homes, within twenty-four hours of the birth, challenging the usual sterile hospital images that inform our collective image of this moment. These women exude strength, identity intact rather than the anonymous mother stripped of self that is often presented at this moment. Instead of fear, anxiety, tiredness we are presented with triumph, the women are steady and forthright often with a confrontational gaze straight to the audience. Empowering both the women in the portraits and the female viewer. Capturing intimate scenes of love, and joy that are rarely made public. At this moment like no other the women are flooded with their self, an egoless self , the primitive mother takes over, endorphins and the hormones flooding their bodies. 

"I have been documenting Mothers with their newborns within the first 24 hours of their birth. All the portraits are taken in their personal space, the environment reinforcing the intimacy of the image, a glimpse into a private world. I am interested in documenting the quiet moment just hours after birth when the female identity of motherhood is being established. The women in the series are unknown to me, they have all responded to leaflets posted around the borough. We have not previously met or exchanged an image, so they are not cast on their age, race, looks or class. The openness and intimacy of complete strangers where I expected vulnerability has been a surprise and as the series has evolved I have noticed its ability to empower." – Jenny Lewis