My most recent project, “Mothers and Daughters, 2011”, aims to reveal the complex and challenging relationships between mothers and daughters. It’s a clear view into the relationship that I have with my own mother and the stories in every image are from my own family. Rather than working with models or actors I chose to work with real “relationships” in their own environment. There is something about the ‘bond’ between a real mother and daughter that I feel would be impossible to recreate. I only needed to orchestrate them moderately to show the essence of their special emotional bond. I created their own small world together, at the same time, through the staging of the scene, reliving for me memories of our family’s own mother and daughter relationships. Its all about intimacy , a depth of knowledge, love and ultimately acceptance that is only arrived at after a lifetime of struggle and conflict. I experienced strong emotions throughout the shooting of this project. As it grew in shape, form and content, I related to twenty different mother and daughter pairs, with their very varied, sometimes ultra-sensitive relationships. The fragility and vulnerability of females is exposed fully in the mother-daughter relationship. With passage of time the relationship changes dramatically. The baby-in-arms is dependent on the mother, at the other end of the age scale, the mother is often quite dependent on the child. In between these extremes, the full spectrum of emotions is played out. My images try to capture these very different stages in this very special relationship. Julia Fullerton-Batten Vaughan Hannigan 793 Broadway 2nd Fl, New York NY 10003 Tel +1 212 777 0099
February 20, 2012
