What she didn’t know then was that her pictures, which garnered attention on social media, would encourage women to get in touch. “On the side of the campaign, I was taking pictures of breastfeeding mothers. And women who saw these, wanted to have me click them too.” While some do it to capture the memory of a phase in their life, others are addressing their demons through the picture. “One mother, who was actually my first client, had been body shamed all her life, as she was on the heavier side. For her, getting shot was an act of embracing her body, in all its motherly glory,” she says of the aesthetic black and white frame of pastry chef Shikha Tanna. Singh used a splay of light to highlight Tanna’s curves. “It’s also about embracing the power that breastfeeding gives them. They want to normalise it. One mother took me to the powder room in a public space, where she was breastfeeding, and I shot her there.” Another picture of Zumba instructor and fitness expert Sucheta Pal with her infant, sees her flash the classic rock and roll salute. 

Anamika Singh

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Singh’s pictures are part of a larger effort by women to normalise breastfeeding. In India, celebrities like Neha Dhupia have spoken about the problems that arise from hiding a natural act of sustaining your child. Dhupia had said, once during a shoot, she was forced to hide behind a tree to breastfeed daughter Mehr. The government’s most recent effort to support has been to launch MAA, a breastfeeding awareness campaign, and Jan Andolan under the Poshan Abhiyan, which also questions the promotion of formula milk for babies.

During shoots, Singh follows a few rules, including trying to conceal the baby’s face (“some mothers are superstitious”), and leaving the mother to decide how comfortable she is to show her body. Singh says, “It’s best if the picture is as natural as the act itself.”