Mother - Softcover

Olausen, Judy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140290842 ISBN 13: 9780140290844

Publisher: Viking Books, 2000

Synopsis

Now in paperback, the hilarious New York Times bestselling mother-daughter collaboration that rips the stuffing out of the motherhood cult

In the spirit of William Wegman and Cindy Sherman, Mother is a very funny, wickedly satiric collection of portraits of that most sacred institution: Mom. Photographing her own mother using 1950s' inspired props, Judy Olausen turns a lifelong homemaker into a surreal icon of all-American-style domestic submission. From "Mother as Coffee Table" to "Mother as Doormat" or "Roadkill," Olausen creates visual metaphors for Mother's role in the era just preceding the women's liberation movement.

The introduction tells us how Judy was inspired to take these over-the-top photographs and offers the occasional deadpan comments from Mother herself. "People watching us do these things think I'm being tortured by an oddball. But this way, Judy and I spend more time together." An embossed jacket featuring a photograph of Mother adds impact to a gift full of sharp insights and laughs for that very special woman on Mother's Day.

"What William Wegman has done for his dogs, Judy Olausen has done for her mother."--The New York Times Book Review

Mother appeared on The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsday, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists

About this title

Review

If Diane Arbus and her mother had shared a similarly warped vision and sense of humor, they might have turned out Mother, a lush, splashy, totally twisted photo album. Photographer Judy Olausen and her 74-year-old mother Vivian--a model with tightly permed blond hair, soft, wrinkled grandmotherly skin, and an extraordinarily expressive face--skewer the clichés of 1950s motherhood and martyrdom. In one shot, Vivian appears as a slightly deranged Betty Crocker, frosting a heart-shaped cake with Valium icing. In another, she's in chains hunched over an ironing board. As the archetypal "Mother Under Pressure," she sports cat glasses, white gloves, and a prim purse while dragging a huge bolder upstairs on her back. In "Shocked by Spock," reading that venerable pediatric bible causes alarm and a near-faint. The collection delivers a wallop of edgy humor and social commentary about women being silenced or squelched in their daily lives and dreams.

About the Author

Judy Olausen, named one of the top ten photographers in the world by Hasselblad, is a commercial photographer and photojournalist. She and her mother live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0140290842
• ISBN 13: 9780140290844
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96