a Chinese mother in Italy

belonging somewhere - belonging to someone

Weaving threads from daily moments, ordinary moments that become intricate and colorful tapestries with time.

A young Chinese mother left her firstborn daughter with her family in a village in the greater Shanghai area and traveled to Italy.

She came to live in a little village between the rice- fields near Milan withe her second, Italian born, daughter, who was just three years old when I got the know the small family.

Wen Jing is now almost nine years old and she has a little sister.

These series just happened, (like my collection of Herenstraat photographs that were many years sleeping in a box).

It was never a project at the start, I just was fascinated by them.

Maybe because I'm a stranger as well in this little village, the theme of belonging and the struggle with different cultural habits is dear to me.

Looking back on the pictures from these six years I can see their sorrows, their uneasiness, especially before and during Hong Xia's last pregnancy. But the latest pictures show happiness as well.

Some sort of relief, some freedom won.