What started as a statement about respect, gradually revealed something much deeper. This three-generation portrait project explores the threads that bind mothers and daughters across time, and what it means to carry another woman’s story. Discover the story behind “Someone’s Daughter” by photographer and director Anais Stupka.
Five mother-and-daughter duos. Three generations of womanhood. And a single, urgent truth threaded through all of it: every woman is someone’s daughter, and every woman is worthy of respect.
“Someone’s Daughter” is a portrait series by Anais Stupka built around recreating baby photographs that mothers once gave their own mothers, now echoed again with their daughters.
The project was conceived as a response to a world that has long reduced women to their appearance, their utility, their surface. The intention was to return the gaze to women at their origins: as daughters. By doing so, Anais asks for something different: empathy over spectacle, humanity over image.
You are not speaking to an object, a body, or a beauty to be consumed. You are speaking to a human being, someone with memory, grief, softness, power; someone’s daughter.
Behind the lens
Bringing the concept to life had its challenges and required the support of a full creative crew: three set designers, a stylist, and a studio team.
They worked within the kind of tight, spirited energy that only comes from a four-hour shoot window and five very different families with very different ideas of what “arriving on time” meant. “Some came early. Some right on time. Some very late – which, somehow, always works itself out in the end.”
As Anais recalls, “everyone involved was so lovely and generous throughout the process. It’s always such a joy to photograph genuine human connection and capture stories people wouldn’t normally share with complete strangers.”
What unfolded in the room
“The room carried all of it at once, a kind of emotional current that moved through every conversation, every photograph, every silence in between.”
Mothers spoke about their own mothers. Stories folded into stories. The old photographs, passed down through generations, became more than images; they became evidence of memory, survival, tenderness, and lineage.
“Not everyone involved had a simple or beautiful relationship with motherhood, and yet the project never asked them to hide that complexity. Instead, it honoured it.” That honesty made the room extraordinary.
I witnessed women reclaiming their narratives while becoming the mothers, protectors, and sources of love they themselves once longed for. There was an understanding that healing can become an inheritance too.
Anais Stupka – Photographer & Director
Love as the point of union
As the project unfolded, it revealed something far greater than its original intention. In Anais’ words, “It became not only about respect, but about love. About reverence. About breaking cycles without losing tenderness. About acceptance, healing, and the courage it takes to remain open-hearted in a world that so often asks women to harden themselves in order to survive.”
Across five very different families, with five very different histories, one thing kept surfacing. Not a shared story, or a shared experience – but a shared feeling. As Anais puts it, “my biggest takeaway from listening to these five very different families was realizing that there is always a point of union – and that point is love.”
Love for family history, however messy or complicated. Love for who we are, and for the people who belong in our worlds. And love for who we are still becoming, including the unexpected people we meet along the way. A meditation on what it means to carry that love forward, across generations.
Beyond the pictures
“Someone’s Daughter” reconnects Anais to why she fell in love with creating in the first place.
Her work has always been rooted in womanhood, but even more than that, in emotional honesty and human connection. “To be trusted with people’s histories, memories, and vulnerabilities is something I never take for granted.”
For Anais, the most rewarding part of the project isn’t any single image – it’s exactly that trust.
That’s why I remain endlessly grateful for art. At its best, it dissolves the distance between strangers, creates refuge for honesty, and allows people to recognize themselves in one another. In a world that so often asks us to conceal what is most human in us, art offers permission to be seen.
Anais Stupka – Photographer & Director
About Anais Stupka
Anais Stupka is a Georgian-Italian creative director and photographer whose career began when she became the youngest winner in history of the Sony World Photography awards. Her work is shaped by the diversity of beauty, social standards and norms of all the countries she has lived in.
“I look forward to continuing to create work that makes space for emotion, connection, and honest human experiences – and to collaborating with people who value tenderness, depth, and humanity in the stories they tell. There are still so many feelings to explore, stories to honor, and lives to encounter through this process, and that sense of endless discovery continues to inspire me.”
Mother Daughter Duos:
Portraits of Mollie de Meza @mollie.de.meza & Tara de Meza
Portraits of Cecilia @cm.94x & Charise@_charmase_
Portraits of Natalia Krzewska @krzeen & Vivi Zou
Portraits of Olufunke Danesi & Lydia Danesi @lydiaa_dan
Portraits of Cassiane @caxxianne & Aria Indee
Creative Director & Photographer: Anais Stupka @anaisstupka | Stylist: Nelson Corrales @nelsoncorrales | Production: @elianistudios | Assistant: Aleksandra Wojcik @wniebowzieta_w_uk | Set Designer: Yasmine Steele @yasmine_mia | Set Assistant: Shealin Murphy: @sheaolivia.design | Set Assistant: Sarah Randall @saraharandall
Did you like to read about this project? Explore more amazing photography projects from our creative community on the Cherrydeck Blog!
