My mother must be around 40 in this photo. How elegant she looks in her black swimsuit and string of pearls. She’s still got her figure and her hair is groomed. She doesn’t seem middle aged. It’s the type of swimsuit I’ve always preferred, and searched for in this age of high legs. Her expression is vague. Her life was going to plan, but was no longer synonymous with her dreams. Her smile seems a bit forced. She’s probably cold. There was usually a cold wind on Northern beaches.
The first time I saw this photo it changed how I’d always viewed my mother. I never gave her credit for fashion sense and elegance. Now I look at all the photos of me in the dresses she made and feel ashamed that I appreciated them and her, so little. There are a few frilly, beribboned party frocks, but the majority are modern and stylish. The patterns are mainly abstract and absolutely up to date. The colours are often dark and always subtle. I don’t remember ever wearing pink. As the fifties gave way to the 60s, flared skirts gave way to simple shift dresses.
The figures in the background make me think of Gormley’s Another Place. Children paddling, a game of cricket, someone digging, probably making a sandcastle… all captured unaware and frozen in time.
The photo expresses my dad’s satisfaction with his family and his life. He appreciated my mother’s elegance and chose to create this moment. The composition is perfect. It conveys an intimacy I’d forgotten, a pyramid of a mother and her two small children.
The first time I saw this photo it changed how I’d always viewed my mother. I never gave her credit for fashion sense and elegance. Now I look at all the photos of me in the dresses she made and feel ashamed that I appreciated them and her, so little. There are a few frilly, beribboned party frocks, but the majority are modern and stylish. The patterns are mainly abstract and absolutely up to date. The colours are often dark and always subtle. I don’t remember ever wearing pink. As the fifties gave way to the 60s, flared skirts gave way to simple shift dresses.
The figures in the background make me think of Gormley’s Another Place. Children paddling, a game of cricket, someone digging, probably making a sandcastle… all captured unaware and frozen in time.
The photo expresses my dad’s satisfaction with his family and his life. He appreciated my mother’s elegance and chose to create this moment. The composition is perfect. It conveys an intimacy I’d forgotten, a pyramid of a mother and her two small children.