Art / Documentary photography
Karni Arieli’s collaborative photographic project ‘Eye Mama’ celebrates exhibition and book launch
Israeli-British BAFTA-nominated filmmaker and photographer Karni Arieli is the founder and curator of Eye Mama, a collaborative project by women and non-binary photographers from all over the world who identify as ‘mamas’.
It seeks to document their personal narrative of motherhood, in all its complexity. In curating the collection, Arieli’s stated goal was “to render what is so often invisible – caregiving, mothering, family and the post-motherhood self – visible”.
The idea first took root in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, and well over 15,000 images were submitted during the initial few months, with the global situation colouring the entries with a common degree of beauty, lyricism and introspection.
“‘Mama’ is a term of endearment,” writes Arieli; “a nickname, a basic first word of attachment, and is anyone who considers themselves a mama/carer of children, including IVF/miscarriage/abortion and all narratives.”
Now, 200 photographs have been selected for the first Eye Mama book, which is celebrating a launch at The Royal Photographic Society on June 2.
To mark the event, there will be talks from Arieli as well as writer Catherine McCormack, who will be chairing the evening, and some of the contributing photographers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CrLF1buofJF/?hl=en
The book launch of Eye Mama: Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood is at the Royal Photographic Society on June 2 from 4-7pm. It is a family friendly event and babies and children are welcome. For more information and tickets, visit www.events.rps.org.
The Eye Mama book is published by TeNeues on June 1, and is available to preorder now.
Follow @eyemamaproject on Insta for updates.
Main photo: Eye Mama/RPS
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