photographs by ana cuba
Ana Cuba is a Spanish photographer based between London and Barcelona. Her work, which can range from abstract images of the human body to vast, inspiring landscapes, seeks to celebrate the extraordinary. For this project, shot for Atmos Volume 9: Kinship, she turned her lens on her newborn daughter, Marla. Zooming into her baby’s petite features—her tiny toe nails, the cracks of her lips, her long eye lashes—made those small details become charged with meaning for Cuba: “It’s been in looking at her through my macro lens that I have connected with a feeling that I can only describe as wonderful in its other-worldly sense,” she says. As she reflects on the journey of Marla, from millions of cells inside her womb to a physical body with neck folds and miniscule fingers, Cuba hopes to translate the magic of a life made manifest, now and forever her kin.
This story first appeared in Atmos Volume 9: Kinship with the title, “Flesh of My Flesh.”
Atmos Volume 09 explores family, biodiversity, wildlife, symbiosis, and conservation—a collection of stories that remind us that we exist in a web of not only relationship, but kinship.
Photographer Ana Cuba Illustrates the Magic of Motherhood
Photographer Ana Cuba Illustrates the Magic of Motherhood