Private Story
YOU ARE THE COLOR OF MEMORY
Summary
A selection of images from YOU ARE THE COLOR OF MEMORY, a personal body of work exploring Adams' life as a mother.
- Tell us more about the photo(s). What stands out to you now, looking back? Is there any additional context you’d like to share with our audience?
The darkness of some of the earlier images, which is not rare for my images generally, stands out to me in hindsight, and not because I was in an emotionally dark place but because it recalls the natural fear of the world that comes with loving something fragile. There's a feeling of mystery in many of the images that I wanted to remember and convey.
- Can you describe what it has been like being a mother? What are the challenges and triumphs, and what would you like readers to know about your experience?
Being a mother has been many things logistically, but through my work I try to explore what it feels like. In this body of work, I want to document the invisible thread that exists between myself and my children, and not just in the way that they physically, emotionally, and intuitively are tied to me but the way that they tether me to former versions of myself. The relationship between mother and child is a singular experience in that it begins with complete physical and intuitive intimacy and is followed by a gradual walking physically away from one another. It is a send-off. A less than terrific poem that I wrote about motherhood years ago describes motherhood as filling up a balloon and letting it go ("A tiny, brilliant lung filled with her own air" is the closing line.)
- What does motherhood mean to you?
"Motherhood" is not a concept but a relationship and a practice, so this question is difficult to answer. Being a mother to someone is, in many ways, like being anything else to anyone else; it is a role one plays. But for me, what motherhood has done for me is teach me what it means to be family, something we are not all gifted to learn as children ourselves.
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