“Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity” 

E’ il progetto fotografico che raccoglie, fra i vari, alcuni scatti di Leigh Ledare. Che cattura sua madre Tina Peterson, mentre se la spassa col toy-boy di turno o semplicemente con i suoi toys. Ex ballerina del New York City Ballet, fotomodella e porno amatrice. Il suo atteggiamento sessualmente aggressivo, combinato con il fragile equilibrio psichico, è stato il catalizzatore per la collaborazione con suo figlio. Un complesso lavoro intimo e libero, oltre i limiti convenzionali, le linee etiche e i taboo associati alla relazione madre-figlio. Ledare, 36, ha deciso di scattare sua madre quando ritornò a casa per Natale, qualche anno fa. Il progetto va avanti da otto anni, come si legge dal Guardian che lo ha intervistato. “I moved between different feelings – uncomfortable, absurd, funny. She would present herself to me, and through me, in a very confrontational way”. Scomodo, assurdo, irriverente, aggressivo. Ecco alcuni scatti di Verità Domestiche – Fotografia, Maternità e Identità.

 “A young man, almost exactly my age, was sprawled out naked.

He rolled over to see me, saying hello,

before rolling back over and returning to sleep”. 

“I arrived home not

having seen her for a

year and a half. She

knew I was coming

and opened the door

naked”.

“There are many ways to be excited. Towards a sexual object, towards direct honesty and openess. I think already in the background there were some foggy boundary issues. What people talk about as being Oedipal – there’s a flirtation with that, but the boundaries were never actually crossed.”

“There’s a lot of emphasis on me being her son, but the work looks at archetypal relationships; also fantasy life and social conventions everybody who looks at it brings their own understanding of their own relationships. We end up displacing what is culturally taboo. The work is trying to look at those blind spots.”