One of the most powerful things about photography is just witnessing somebody’s life.

Documentary photography is, on its face, the practice of making images that are accurate. But in a more meaningful way, documentary photography is a tool for making plain the ways the human experience is common to all of us. Long-term projects mean investing time and energy in building relationships with my subjects, which leads to making images that have a life far beyond the time in which they were made.

What does this mean for Mothers & Daughters? It means the majority of the images I make will be as life unfolds around us. There will be opportunity for portraits in the course of our time together, but my focus is on making meaningful images that tell your story. It also means I may ask for access to photograph more than once.

Typically, the photographs I make for this project will be in your home, but any place that’s an authentic part of your life can be a setting for images. Unlike a typical photoshoot, there are no guidelines for how you dress, or where we go, as long as those elements are accurate and authentic. 

Absolutely nothing. It may help to think about the project this way: if I were interviewing you for a book I was writing, you wouldn’t expect to pay anything to participate. This project works the same way.

Unlike a typical photoshoot, these images are part of a larger body of work I am creating, to be publicly exhibited and curated into a book. I am deeply grateful for everyone who chooses to participate, and as a show of that gratitude, I will select an image from our time together and make a print for every participant.

Not every photo will be chosen for display or publication. I will be carefully curating the images and sharing only the photos that best illustrate the project’s theme.