Typically my family photos don't include my mother as a subject. She is, however, included as an author—she photographs these portraits. I more often see fathers as family photographers, but as a housewife my Mother gets asked to assume all family responsibilities with the exception of funding. Among these responsibilities is the job of documenting and archiving our family. With this charge, my Mom is given license to construct a family identity in images. As a homemaker, crafting these images is just another dimension of cultivating a sense of home and family.
I present my Mother's role as photographer by posing as her at the respective moments of her scenes' creations. I want to implicate her in her role as homemaker as ex-oficio photographer and artist. The three portraits at top are her originals. In terms of process, her work here approaches staged narrative; she has dressed my sister, my Father and I, posed us and picked her settings somewhat selectively: Dartmouth College, my Father's alma mater, a sunny day at the beach and Easter Sunday.
*When I got home after first semester, I showed my Mom the project. She had sent me a collection of her own selection of family photos when I began working to describe the persona of my Mother as a homemaker and as her unique self. My big sister agrees with me that the images are heartbreaking, but my Mom seems to not feel that way. When i explained the idea to her, she just nodded and said, 'yea, well, of course' as if to say, 'is it news to you that i do everything?' That's true, it's not. We made space in our bookcase, a display for photos, for them, with other family portraits minus my mom.
Shown above are the photos in the bookcase itself, on the upper left corner.
Here is one image of my sister and cat looking at the mantle:
Some more examples, found in the bookcase of portraits minus my mom:
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