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A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing mother and son, Ms. Francis Kay Burnhardt and Ashley Yeo, and mother and daughter, Ms. Ong Ooi Kwen and Chin Xiu Qi, while shooting for a Reader's Digest Asia feature called "Supermums".

As outlined in the "Supermums" article, "To celebrate the inspirational tales of ordinary women who are doing extraordinary things, we asked the Reader’s Digest community to share stories about their mums.  From the entries we received, it became crystal clear that there are so many women who are truly remarkable and who deserve to be loved, recognized and celebrated.  Countless stories moved us and we were genuinely amazed and touched by the sacrifices that these mothers have made."

From all the submissions Reader's Digest received, they selected six women whom they felt to be "the embodiment of a 'Supermum': strong, passionate and willing to make any sacrifice necessary for the sake of their family."

Ms. Burnhardt and Ms. Ong were two of those women.

As Ashley explains, life for his mother Francis "took an unexpected turn...when my father passed away suddenly, leaving [my mum] jobless and grieving with the

responsibility of raising five children."  However, his mother persevered; her "tenacity, spirit and love has rebuilt this family [and] kept it together."

Similarly, tragedy and hardship came to Ms. Ong and her children when she lost her husband to cancer and then struggled as a single parent to raise four children, including an autistic son.  As Xiu Qi articulates, "All this hardship could have broken a person, but [my mother] was strengthened by it.  Today, my mum has become someone so fearless -- I can’t tell if she would still be the same person if life had been easy."

These mothers and their children each spent less than an hour with me together in my studio, but in that short time it was evident how close they were.  I hope my portraits of them together are a small testament to that bond.

Ashley perfectly summarizes all the stories of the "Supermums": thanks to his mother, "this family portrait is still picture-perfect."

"Supermums" is in the May 2011 issue of Reader's Digest Asia, on newsstands now.

See more of my portrait photography on my website.