The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2021–2022
Modibodi and Getty open a 1,500-image gallery that reclaims the word 'postpartum'
To redefine postpartum apparel, Modibodi funded 28 photographers in 14 countries and opened the resulting gallery through Getty Images.
Modibodi
How it works
Modibodi was building a postpartum apparel line, but the way postpartum life was portrayed did not match the experience itself. To redefine the category, the brand decided the postpartum experience would have to be portrayed in a new way too.
The answer was a publicly available image gallery of more than 1,500 pictures, captured by 28 photographers from 14 countries. Each photographer drew on their own lived experience to show previously unseen aspects of postpartum life, and Modibodi built the library in partnership with Getty Images so every image carried proper licensing from the start.
Because the gallery was open and licensed, it created an enduring space in culture where women could reclaim the word postpartum — and brands, governments and institutions could use the same images to keep telling the fuller story instead of repeating narrow clichés.
Why it lands
- The brand changed the category's raw material rather than just its advertising, so the new imagery outlived any single campaign.
- Partnering with Getty added a distribution and licensing layer, turning an idea into an asset other organisations could legally build on.
- Photographers with lived experience made authenticity structural instead of a pose the brand had to defend.
- Open access meant competitors and institutions would carry Modibodi's definition of postpartum into their own work.
What you can take
To change how a life stage is seen, change the imagery everyone can license: an open, well-made library does the repositioning long after the campaign itself ends.
Since then
The Embodied gallery became available through Getty Images from 1 October 2021, as Modibodi moved beyond period-proof underwear into maternity and postpartum apparel. The work was recognised at D&AD, the Clio Awards and The One Show, and the gallery remained an open resource that brands, governments and institutions could draw on.
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