MIYAKO ISHIUCHI: Michael Hoppen Gallery

Miyako Ishiuchi, Mother's 8 Silver Gelatin Print

Miyako Ishiuchi, Mother's 39 C-type print

Miyako Ishiuchi, Mother's 35, C-type print

Miyako...began to photograph her mother systematically and intimately in the last years of her life until 2000, when she died suddenly. Although their relationship had been strained, Ishiuchi was deeply affected. She proceeded to document her mother's possessions in order to come to terms with her death, and in an attempt to understand the bond between them.

It is interesting to think about what people's objects may reveal about them. On the other hand, such objects can be thought of as merely materialistic in that they may actually tell nothing about who a person really is. Although each of these objects are intimate in nature, they reveal very little to the viewer about the owner of the objects themselves.