Mommy dearest

Photos © Tierney Gearon

I am sorry to say that I only caught the last 20 minutes of the documentary 'The Mother Project' on photographer Tierney Gearon which had its TV premiere on the Sundance Channel last night.

Gearon is one of my favorite photographers with her editorial and personal work equally compelling. You may remember that her photographs of her young children caused quite a scandal in the UK when they were exhibited @ the Saatchi Gallery a couple of years back. The London police demanded that the photographs be removed and the Brit tabloids whipped the whole thing into a frenzy. Common sense prevailed in the end and no charges were ever filed.

The film documents Tierney over the course of 3 years as she assembles her new body of work. This time she turn the camera on her mother who lives alone in a small town in upstate New York.

'Their relationship is complicated - her mother has suffered from mental illness for much of her adult life. Throughout the process of making these photographs, Tierney has struggled to understand how her mother lives now, as well as coming to grips with how her illness affected Tierney as a young girl. By extension the process of taking the photographs also reflects Tierneys struggle to be a good parent to her own children. Tierney describes her pictures as a form of therapy - a means of healing herself. the truth is never what it seems in Tierneys world, however; the erie tableaus at the heart of her work always hide a deeper meaning just beyond the edges of the photographs.'

The film is scheduled to be re-broadcast on the Sundance Channel on Monday May 21st @ 6.15pm and I urge everyone to make the time or set the Tivo. The little I saw was truly captivating and utterly revealing of a photographer, her art, her process, her person.

Pelicula 64 managed to catch it in its entirety, you can read his thoughts here.

The picture above is one of my favorite Gearon portraits, its actress Diane Keaton for the New Tork Times magazine, it ran sometime last year.