Madonna
& Bloom

Selected works

Project Summary

Madonna and Bloom traces a journey through the complexity of becoming a woman, into the unexpected softness of motherhood. The project began on a tourist visit to a pilgrimage site, where a Madonna gave me a reason to pause and reflect. It was not a religious moment but I couldn't quite define what it was. Around the same time I became drawn to flowers, their colours, scents, and feelings they can invoke.

Between 2019 and 2026, often on walks and often while travelling. The two subjects continued to cause me to pause and reflect. Madonnas on walls, in churches, on city corners. Flowers growing, through cracks, over gates, in jungles, in places planned and unplanned. Neither sought out nor staged. Simply found and photographed.

It was only in looking back that the pattern revealed itself. And then the meaning.

The Madonnas here are not religious icons. They are perfect archetypes — what the world expects and what women internalise or judge themselves against. Yet, there isn't a single version of the Madonna that represents all women or the various phases of womanhood. Likewise, flowers grow indifferent to expectation. Diverse and each beautiful in its own way.

Madonna & Bloom is a record of a metamorphosis. I only understood this in retrospect — which is, perhaps, how all the most important journeys are lived.

The book comprises images made across multiple continents between 2019 and 2026.

About

Madonna & Bloom is Mercy Masaeli's first photography project to be developed for publication. The images are a reflection of her own journey into womanhood and motherhood — collected quietly, on walks across multiple continents, without intention of becoming a book until the meaning revealed itself.

Publisher & press enquiries

Madonna & Bloom comprises approximately 90 images made across multiple continents between 2019 and 2026. Available for representation, exhibition, and publication.