MOTHERSHIP
Can you know a life through a person’s book collection?
Mothership is a portrait of my mother, Dianna, as she descends into the depths of early-onset dementia. Using her collection of books on New Age belief systems as a guide, I took photographs of my mother at home and on road trips to supernatural and otherworldly locations. Mothership sheds light on the degenerative effects that dementia has on oneself and one’s family while capturing inspiring moments of clarity, self-awareness, and connection.
For my mother, Dianna, the New Age movement offered alternatives to a Eurocentric worldview through several religious, mystical, and mythological traditions and guided her spiritual practice throughout her life. As a single parent in the 1980s, she spent her precious few moments of free time studying books on metaphysical religions, holistic healing, UFOs, and self-help guides. She kept her eyes to the sky as she pursued knowledge beyond earthbound boundaries.
As dementia takes its toll, Dianna’s connection to this world and her family is separating. The culmination of her lifelong pursuit for higher consciousness is cruelly disappearing due to the physiological effects of the disease. Yet, my mother and I have found new ways to communicate using her book collection as a road map. Road trips to various interstellar roadside attractions, such as Stonehenge II, Inner Space Caverns, and NASA Space Center, have elicited unexpected moments of joy and lucidity. It is within and around sites linked to the great beyond that Dianna can tap into a deep well of spiritual wonder and inner light, and I can capture a glimpse of the person she was before dementia came into our lives. As her mind darkens, these photographs explore ideas about the impermanence of memory, my fear of generational inheritance of this disease, and re-imaging life and photography when rules and social norms are removed. This is a story of two women connecting through familiar totems as they navigate a new psychological and emotional reality.
