Since 2020, European countries have been among the ones that have suffered the most serious consequences from the Covid19 outbreak, imposing continued national lockdowns. Two years later Europe is once again struggling to contain the rapid spread of infections. The pandemic shut schools and workplaces, throwing family lives into chaos with responsibilities falling mostly on mothers. According to data, in fact, since 2020 women provided twice more childcare and housework than men. The pandemic outbreak has had very serious consequences on women who have found themselves managing, basically on their own, children’s care, distance learning, remote working and home chores. All at same time, in the same place.

Photography was meant to go for honesty above all: a genuine treatment for a genuine subject. That’s why we chose a cast made by real mothers and their kids and shot the film in 4:3 format, to highlight the realism of the storytelling. The scenes are like tableaus, mixed with pictures: frozen moments, iconic, disturbing, human. We listened as each mother shared her story and we captured all in photos, shot with a Leica camera, printed on matt paper and re-scanned. Photography is very honest: nothing is polished, all light is available light. We used heave head on flash photography, in order to mimic the afterhours and backstage photos of 80s rock stars. The choice of black and white was intended to represent the scenes with a rawer and more essential look and feel. The strong presence of black dramatizes these portraits, reinforcing the scream of rebellion behind the campaign.