Momo Okabe: My Bloody Hand

Through vivid color and explicit imagery, Okabe narrates her journey to motherhood from her miscarriages to her first child

Known for her intimate and potent explorations into personal narratives of gender, sexuality and the modern relationship, Japanese photographer Momo Okabe (born 1981) floods her works with intensely rich colors, evoking an emotional reaction beyond a simple image. This heartwrenching photobook sees Okabe reckoning with the tragedy of her first miscarriage. Saving the blood and examining it under a photographic microscope, Okabe transforms her trauma into a surreal, otherworldly exploration of the inner world. These images are interspersed with Okabe's documentation of her subsequent pregnancies and the birth of her first child. Thus, My Bloody Hand serves as a bittersweet symbol of the dawning of a new chapter in Okabe's life: one of birth, motherhood, optimism and a future of uncertainty.