Motherhood can be “all-consuming,” says Australian photographer Lisa Sorgini, who has two young sons. “Within each day we can feel the deepest tenderness, tedium, quietude, love, frustration, fear and despair.” During the pandemic, those feelings are magnified, as families are confined to their homes, without the usual outlets of school and work, friends and childcare.

Photographers are stuck at home too. Instead of assignments in far-flung places, capturing the lives of strangers, they are training their lenses on their families and immediate surroundings.

For Mother’s Day, we asked photographers who are mothers to show us what their lives are like now. They responded by revealing the joy and anxiety, the panic and calm, and the gratitude