Notes On The Exhibition

NOTES ON THE EXHIBITION

In January 1986, Aperture began work on the Mother-Daughter project, which we hoped would describe the changing nature of women in American society and further examine how those changes had altered or affirmed the traditional familial bond.

More than 600 photographers worldwide, both well-known and those less prominent, were asked to submit their personal choices of images of American mothers and daughters for consideration in the show. Many of these artists in turn told others of the project, or wrote and telephoned with their suggestions for important material. The resulting preliminary choice of some 3000 photographs by contemporary photographers was exhilarating in its breadth and depth. To make the final selection of images was a difficult and lengthy decision-making process.

We discovered many photographers whose work on the mother-daughter relationship had been ongoing for years. We uncovered artists who had created collages, albums, books, series images, and other treatments in their search for expression on this theme. Photographers wrote of their excitement that an exhibition was finally being planned on one of the central concerns in their work. They wrote of themselves, and their personal lives—to an unprecedented degree—and we asked permission to include these comments with the images.

In choosing the final photographs for the exhibition we considered both the visual merit of the images, and the breadth and diversity of the subject: the classes, races, styles, and ethnic identities that mother-daughter relations encompass in America. We looked for images that had something to say, that shouted some feeling or whispered emotion. We looked for the small details that might fall between the cracks. The exhibition was envisioned as a tribute to American women: in this potpourri of images, text, commentary by the artists, and other materials, we hope that we have selected work that reflects the scope and intensity we encountered, and that will provide a point of departure for future visual explorations of mothers and daughters.

DIANE LYON AND NAN RICHARDSON

Because of space restrictions, the work of the following photographers who are represented in the Mothers & Daughters exhibition was not able to be reproduced in the catalog: Joan Albert, William Albert Allard, Tina Barney, John Carrino, John Cavanagh, Judy Dater, Jed Devine, Patricia Evans, Leonard Freed, Mary Frey, Patricia Galagan, Penny Gentieu, Jim Goldberg, Nan Goldin, Susan Kae Grant, William Hubbell, Tamara Kaida, Bud Lee, Phyllis Leideker, Helen Levitt, John Lueders-Booth, Jeff Mermelstein, Joan Moss, Phil Norwich, Wendy Olson, Melissa Pinney, Sarah Putnam, Jack Radcliffe