If & Why: on Parenthood
A polyphonic research and photo essay, capturing the moment before deciding whether to have children; an archive of uncertainty, hesitation, and conflicting desires around parenthood.
2022 - 2026 work in progress   




Summary of the project


“If & Why: on Parenthood” is a photo essay built from polyphonic interviews and intimate portraits, captured at the moment before deciding whether to have children; an archive of uncertainty, hesitation, and conflicting desires around parenthood. The project reflects on the Millennial generation's standpoints on reproduction and family planning, focusing on how the shift from parenthood as an assumed destiny to parenthood as a choice is experienced from within. Crucially, this archive does not focus on highlighting a "right" decision; rather, it explores the variety of answers to a question that, until recently, seemed to have only one narrative to follow.

The project comprises over forty interviews, each presented as a monologue paired with an environmental portrait taken in the participant’s home. While the research spans a wide range of thematic areas, the most striking one is a recurring tension around selfishness. Across the interviews, participants describe every position as potentially selfish: having a child, not having one, or remaining undecided, revealing a condition in which no choice feels ethically stable.

The monologues also reveal a complex relationship with gender norms and expectations, challenging these long-standing roles and offering a new perspective on how families can be formed, with or without having a child. By examining one of the most pressing decisions people face around a certain age, this project offers a collective view on a question that often remains within private spaces.



Current state & vision


The research is based on over forty interviews and portraits collected over four years with individuals aged 25 to 40, representing more than twenty nationalities and a wide spectrum of social, cultural, and personal backgrounds. None of the participants were parents at the time of documentation.

The intersection of qualitative research and photography operates together. Each interview takes the form of a monologue, reflecting on the question of whether—or why—to have children, and is paired with an environmental portrait taken in the participant’s home. This offers a complementary narrative, offering insight into their personalities and life choices. This approach establishes a level of intimacy, as if the reader were sitting in the room with the participant.

This body of work was developed alongside my own process of questioning parenthood, a journey that only started after freezing my eggs at 32. At the time, not realizing I was "freezing" my most burning questions regarding the choice of parenthood: “I didn't yet know if or why I wanted children, only that society expected it of me”. This experience did not simply provide access to the subject but situated the author within the same field of uncertainty as the participants. The work is therefore not observational from a distance, but shaped by proximity, identification, and the conditions it seeks to examine.

The idea is to publish a book that seeks to celebrate the diversity of perspectives, rather than documenting parenthood itself; that will allow meaning to emerge across voices rather than within a single narrative. It is an evolving archive; while a book is the ideal format to anchor these stories in a specific moment in time, the project has the potential to document these individuals as their paths diverge in the years to come. 



Past experiences 


Magnum Photos workshop “On portraiture” with Olivia Arthur.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 2025

Participated in a workshop on Portraiture with Olivia Arthur, which challenged participants to see the medium in a new light. She encouraged us to deconstruct traditional ideas of portraiture and embrace playfulness and experimentation.

The results of the workshop below were screened during a festival for visual storytellers, Inside>>Out, which creates a hive of creativity and a village of photographers from around the globe.

This is the testimonial I shared during the workshop: This project began three years ago after I decided to freeze my eggs - in a way, freezing my most burning questions. The questions of if I want and why I want to have kids weren’t even part of my thinking. I started wondering whether people from different places see it differently? Are they also bothered by the same questions? I began documenting these intimate conversations - asking about fear, excitement, anxieties, and the questions that surface when they imagine parenthood. These conversations revealed both cultural differences and similarities - shared social norms and dilemmas. I intend to highlight the wide range of perspectives around the decision to have (or not have) children, and how deeply personal and unique it is. 

While in Sarajevo, I managed to create the same sense of intimacy with people I’ve just met - they invited me into their homes and life so I could learn how these conversations and questions translate in this context. 






Artist-in-Residence at Casa Tagumerche

La Gomera, Canary Islands, May 2022


This is the testimonial I shared during the residency: I was an artist-in-residence at Casa Tagumerche for two weeks. I was taking photos, sketching, and being in this peaceful and beautiful home with the best view on the island, which was everything I needed to complete the first 6 months of intensive research and photography exploring the question of parenthood.

With this collection of photos and intimate conversations, I hoped to emphasize the range of perspectives the question of parenthood brings with it, and how diverse people’s interpretations of such a meaningful decision can be.