I discovered a photo essay by Russian photographer Jana Romanova this morning, Waiting, a series of 40 photographs of pregnant couples, still asleep at 5 am. She took the shots from a ladder straight down onto the bed and every picture tells an intimate story.
Limbs twine, bodies spoon, heads and torsos incline towards or away from one another. It feels easy to read relationships into the poses, to distinguish the couples at ease and in love from those who will struggle as a family.
The one to the right plays differently for me, echoing the nights that I lay awake throughout 2013. The year turned into a long series of trials, keeping dreams and aspirations alive while addressing failures and learning life’s lessons from them.
And so, in the quiet darkness, a wish:
‘for more success, more luck, more love and laughter, more travel and fulfilment and love and, yes, for more peaceful sleep, sent to all of my friends, colleagues, and readers for 2014.