Active during Japan’s Meiji era, Kusakabe Kimbei is known for his hand coloring of photographs, a process that turned studio images into luminous hybrids of photography and painting. Staging scenes from daily life, his hand painted pictures feel as documentarian as they do theatrical. In this portrait of a mother carrying her child on her back, Kimbei shows the delicate balancing act of motherhood, best sent to the brave women at the start of a lifelong journey, prepared to place themselves before their children as shields to life’s unpredictable obstacles.

Courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg