Women Photographers and Their Children
Edited by Martina Mettner, essay by Jayne Anne Phillips
Editions Stemmle, Zurich and New York, 2001
Photographs by twenty-three photographers, including Tina Barney, Niki Berg, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Graciela Iturbide, Sally Mann, Margaret Sartor, and Joyce Tenneson. These photographs comprise the first book devoted to the image of children from the perspective of mothers who are professional photographers. In Their Mother’s Eyes is an unprecedented collection of contemporary photography and an important document in the history of women artists.
“The moments, hours, and days mothers spend with their children are marked with an intimacy and erudition that is, however transitory at the time, the very thread of the lifelong mother/child relationship. In this engaging photographic anthology, 23 accomplished women photographers (including Sally Mann, Donna Ferrato, and Sheila Metzner) share images of their children and their thoughts on photographing so close to home. For some of these women, the advent of motherhood turned them to the art of photography, while for others photographing their children was naturally incorporated into already established artistic efforts. Several of the images are published here for the first time and were made for family albums. Ranging from studied portraiture to composed collaborations to fleeting observations from everyday life, the images all express the timeless regard that these mothers have for their sons and daughters. The book is also an impressive survey of contemporary women photographers. A moving introduction describes the breathless wonderment of motherhood and the importance of its expression through art.” —Debora Miller, Library Journal
