DONOR
DONOR by Maki Umaba is a deeply intimate and emotionally layered photobook that reconsiders the image of motherhood through portraiture, domestic space, and lived experience. Drawing visual references from classical depictions of the Virgin and Child, Umaba photographs women breastfeeding not as symbols of idealized motherhood, but as individuals navigating vulnerability, contradiction, exhaustion, tenderness, and responsibility.
Rather than presenting motherhood as sentimental or sacred, DONOR quietly reveals the emotional and psychological complexity behind the role society often projects onto women. Accompanied by personal writings from the subjects themselves, the book creates a space where private thoughts, bodily experiences, hesitation, love, and anxiety coexist with dignity and honesty.
What makes DONOR especially compelling is its restraint. The photographs do not dramatize; instead, they observe with care and closeness. Within domestic interiors, Umaba captures moments that feel both deeply personal and universally recognisable, questioning how the image of “mother” is culturally constructed and internalised.
For readers interested in contemporary Japanese photography, feminist perspectives, portraiture, and photobooks exploring identity and social roles, *DONOR* is a quietly powerful publication that lingers long after viewing. It is both visually delicate and conceptually rich, a work that invites slow reflection on care, womanhood, and the unseen emotional labour behind motherhood.
《DONOR》是日本攝影師馬場磨貴（Maki Umaba）對「母親」形象的一次深刻凝視。作品借用了西方聖母像的視覺語言，卻透過真實女性哺乳時的肖像，重新思考社會對母職的期待、投射與想像。
書中的女性並非抽象的「理想母親」，而是真實地活在疲憊、矛盾、溫柔與焦慮之中的個體。搭配受訪者的文字與私密敘述，《DONOR》讓讀者看見母職背後複雜而細膩的情感經驗。
馬場磨貴以極為克制而溫柔的方式拍攝這些肖像，在安靜的家庭空間中，呈現女性作為母親、妻子、女兒與「自己」之間交錯的身份狀態。這不只是一本關於母親的攝影書，更是一部關於女性身體、情感與存在經驗的重要作品。
Language: English, Japanese
Format: Hardcover | 120 pages
Dimensions: 257 x 188mm | 480g
Publication Year: January 2026 | First Edition
ISBN: 978-4-86541-220-8
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