Recently, photographer Liliya Lubenkova did a maternity photo session in her Vancouver studio with model Anyiech that really stood out for her.

“I do boudoir and beauty sessions, but maternity is my passion,” Lubenkova explains. “This was a truly creative collaboration between fashion designer, makeup artist, photographer and model. When Anyiech, the first African heritage model I’ve photographed, got pregnant, I knew I wanted to work with her on a maternity shoot. My idea was to show how beautiful and strong and fierce she is as a mom-to-be.”

Lubenkova continues: “For this session, I tried to create an impression of the African continent. My idea was to use warm, neutral, earthy colors for the backdrop and bright, bold patterns (for which African textiles are famous) for the clothing. The mix of white, coffee, red, green, yellow and indigo is just fascinating to me. They are visually appealing and complement the model quite well.”

(Shot with a Canon 5D Mark III and Sigma Art 50mm lens at f/4.5, 1/160 of a second and ISO 160. A Profoto B1 with a 5-foot Octa was set up at right of the camera.)

See more from this session below:

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