THANK YOU! She dreams about the wild, about the endless sand of the Sahara, about all the voices and songs she would hear in the deepest of the jungle, about the great white one, the king of the Arctic walking the pack ice, about the life in the oceans, about Mother Earth. We need to feel close to nature to connect with it, but we can’t be everywhere. We can’t see the world in a day. She closes the window towards Canal Street, New York. The room darkens; the only things giving light are her reading lamp, pointed at her favorite magazine, and her fairy lights over the bed. The sounds from the busy street fade out, and the more she reads, the more she disappears. She found a way of traveling without leaving her house. She found a way of covering the two poles and everything between them. This is not a fairytale. This is what storytelling combined with photography can do! ✨This is Mother magazine. Building a magazine with different photographers, styles, and ways of storytelling is a puzzle that we now have put together while I write these words. And it is perfectly complete. Thank you to all contributors, readers, writers, illustrators, and editors who helped me along this path. Mother magazine Volume 2 is growing and following the footsteps of the contributors from Volume 1. When you read this last page, you have already gone through the desert, walked the mossy path through British Columbia, found yourself surrounded by jellyfish, learned about the Queen Bee, and met Nancy—just to mention a few stories. Who you did not meet or see in this magazine are the amazing people behind the scenes. After making the first magazine, I was contacted by Goli Mohammadi, and she offered to help with Volume 2. She supported not just the writing of the photographers but explained to me the changes she made and kept each story’s voice the same. Her passion for words and language and this project inspired me every day. And in this online edition of the magazine, you see the wonderful work of illustrator Stefanie Bendfeldt, who has created beautiful portraits of the contributors. From the bottom of my heart: Thank you. With a foreword from the amazing photographer Ami Vitale, who I admire to the moon and back, and with the support of my partner Sony, we have created a new masterpiece. Thank you all for believing in Mother . There is an environmental impact of printing a magazine like this. Needless to say, we do all we can to keep it at a minimum by using the best printer, recycled paper, and ink. My hope is that this print edition of Mother is taking a step back in time to when a great photograph would last and a beautiful story could be revisited and read all over again. Today, social media and the online world is shortening our attention span and making deep and important things more shallow. A beautiful photograph is looked at for a few seconds at best, then the viewer scrolls on and the photograph is never seen again. Social media is great for many things. But our way of consuming media is shortening our attention span in a scary way. Great photography is swiped away after seconds, and words can not be more than a sentence or two before they’re clicked away. That is why I love printed products. They last. And hopefully this one makes some of you take a little break. Sit down in your sofa and dive into the magic of these incredible women.
When the world is spinning faster and faster, the smartest thing can be...to take a step back, to take a break. Feel. Think.
Love, Melissa Schäfer
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MOTHER MAGAZINE
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Published by The Motherbear Productions Editor in chief Melissa Schäfer • Text editor Goli Mohammadi melissa@themotherbear.com • www.themotherbear.com/mother © 2023 The Motherbear Productions. All photographs and text in this magazine are the property of the respective photographer and writer. The Motherbear Productions owns and retains the copyrights of the Mother Magazine, its layout and design. Unless otherwise specified, no one has permission to copy or republish, in any form, any information, including, but not limited to text, photographs, artwork and design, found in this magazine without a written permission from the respecive owner of the copyright.
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Cover photo and back page by Elizabeth Gadd PRINTED BY ELANDERS SWEDEN IN LATVIA
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MOTHER VOLUME TWO
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