Generations of Women

WOW! Talk about inspiration! I hope I always have the excitement that I feel, with all the ideas in my head with this book. But it is SO much more.

Yesterday, I had a swap meet sale with a coworker and a lady that I meet at a rummage sale we did. Long story, I had seen this book, I believe, briefly, within the lady's stuff, but didn't think about it again. I saw Whoopi Goldberg and I am guessing her mom, which upon further inspection later really think that is Whoopi's mom, and her presumably on the cover.

Anyway, as we were packing to leave, I saw the book again. I looked at it some more and was like WOW! I asked the lady how much she wanted for the book. She said, "Take it." I asked her if she was sure. She said, "Yes, I already have another one." I was gushing about how I liked the book, and she said that she liked it as well.

So today, I am checking out the book, and again, WOW WOW WOW WOW! The photographer, Mariana Cook has done other books like this. Jamaica Kincaid wrote the introduction.

The basic premise of the book is photos of different generations of women, hence the title, "In Generations of Women: In Their Own Words." Then, like the second part of the title, are the women in the photo writing about their relationships with the other women in the photo.

As I am looking at the book, and thinking about my mom and aunt, I realize I do not have a photo with BOTH of them together. Then I think about how the portraits are personalized as far as where the women are sitting, wearing, etc.

I just started to write now about if I could have taken a picture with two important women in my life, where would we be, what would we be wearing, etc.

I am sharing this because of the inspiration this has given me to take and journal about the relationships I have with others. Also, to hopefully inspire you to get and/or look at this text as well as the others, and hopefully to take a photo with people who are significant in your life and to have everyone, including you, to write about those relationships.

I am thinking, if I only had a photo of me with my mom and aunt, and just a few words from each of us about our relationship how I would treasure this. No artful page, although I think the photo itself can and is art, but as far as scrapbooking stuff that is put on the page, just photos and words, as Ali Edwards, a "celebrity scrapbooker" would say. In other words, something meaningful can be created simply.

Homework: Go find a picture of you with someone or others that are important to you. Or take a photo. Then, write about the relationship(s) you have with that person or persons. Have the person or people in the photo do the same-share the photo to maybe trigger that particular memory, but you do not have to share the photo for this to work. Then blog it, scrapbook it-it doesn't need embellishment, Facebook, Tweet (might need several Tweets), email, type, write, journal, Photoshop, whatever, just get it "printed" in some way.

If you are still reading this far, and did this, please post a comment with a link here so I can see what you did.

Here is a link to the photographer's page re: this book.

Cook Studio