Oedipal exposure: Leigh Ledare's photographs of his mother having sex

Not for the easily offended … Tina Reflecting, 2003, by Leigh Ledare. Photograph: courtesy Leigh Ledare/Pilar Corrias London

Leigh Ledare takes photographs of his mother having sex with young men. Is he just out to shock?

An attractive middle-aged woman, naked bar a pair of red high heels, poses as if for a porn shoot, her legs spread wide and a defiant look in her eyes. In another photograph, the woman is naked and laughing, entangled with a younger male lover. Elsewhere, in furtive black-and-white shots, she is pictured having sex with various – mostly younger – men. These are some of the more provocative photographs from Leigh Ledare's series Pretend You're Actually Alive – and, even without knowing their full context, they are not for the easily offended.

What shifts them from the provocative to the shocking is the single word in many of the captions: mum. We may have grown used to photographers like Nan Goldin and Larry Clark mapping out their often hardcore personal lives. But Ledare, a soft-spoken American, has taken this to a new extreme, capturing the exhibitionist sexuality of his own mother.

The work, which I came across when it was published in book form in 2008, comprises images of his mother Tina; his own adolescent diary entries; ads she placed in the Seattle Weekly for "a generous, wealthy husband (not someone else's) who wants his own private dancer"; plus moving descriptions of her troubled relationship with her sons and former husband; and, most intriguingly, ageing.

Although initially taken aback, I soon became fascinated by Ledare's no-holds-barred delineation of an extreme mother-son relationship. Goldin curated a show of Ledare's work at the 2009 Arles photography festival, which was met with shock. Now, extracts from Pretend You're Actually Alive will feature in a group show – Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity – at the Photographers' Gallery in London. The exhibition includes various series by female photographers that brutally depict the emotional and physical strain of motherhood. But even viewed alongside Tierney Gearon's disturbing images of the mother-child relationship, Ledare's photographs are by far the most transgressive. Their titles alone – Mom Spread with Lamp, Mom Fucking in Mirror – prompt a swift intake of breath, and their inclusion in the show will doubtless offend some visitors and appal others.

The obvious question is why did he – and she – do it? When asked, Ledare can retreat into a mixture of conceptual art speak, as in "the extremely open and intimate relationship I have with my mother ... was developed through the work. (It) comments on the confusion around these sexual boundaries … through imposing herself on me as a subject, she was asking me to be complicit in her sexualisation. I saw her sexuality as a means of antagonising her father and refuting expectations he had for how she should behave as a mother, daughter, and woman of her age."

A look at the arc of Tina Peterson's life explains things further. At 16, she appeared as a beautiful, precociously talented ballerina in Seventeen magazine. Later, she danced at the Joffrey and the New York City Ballet before working briefly as a model. She then married, had two children, and – when the marriage failed – worked on and off as an exotic dancer.

Born in 1976, Leigh left home at 15 and attended Rhode Island School of Design. He was a skateboarder of some repute and worked as an assistant to Larry Clark, the controversial photographer and film-maker. Clark, who in 1971 made the seminal confessional photobook Tulsa about his life as a heroin addict, and later the Harmony Korine-scripted film Kids, is clearly a huge influence on Ledare.

Leigh Ledare, Mother and Catch 22, 2002 

Photograph: © Leigh Ledare Courtesy of the 

artist and Pilar Corrias, London © Leigh 

Ledare Courtesy of the artist and Pilar 

Corrias, London Copyright Leigh Ledare

His decision to chronicle his troubled relationship with his mother, he says, started when he returned home one Christmas. "I arrived home not having seen her for a year and a half," he recalls. "She knew I was coming and opened the door naked." When Leigh walked in past the bedroom, "a young man, almost exactly my age, was sprawled out naked. He rolled over to see me, saying hello, before rolling back over and returning to sleep." Ledare interpreted this welcome as "her way of announcing to me what she was up to, at this period in her life – almost as though to say, 'Take it or leave it.' I had a camera and began making photos of her then. She was the catalyst."

So began their collaboration which, it must be stressed, is performance-based in the manner of much conceptual photography. Tina is performing an exaggerated version of herself for her son's camera. "I do find it difficult that the model often doesn't get any credit for her participation," she once said. "She's at least 50% of the picture." If the camera makes her even more of an exhibitionist, it also allows her son to play the role of detached observer. The process offers them both a distance – morally, psychologically and creatively. But still, he is a son who photographs his mum exposing herself and having sex.

How did he feel about it? "The work spanned eight years," he says. "I moved between different feelings – uncomfortable, absurd, funny. She would present herself to me, and through me, in a very confrontational way." Did he feel she was controlling the situation, manipulating him? "My mom was a strong figure in my life. My grandfather retired to homeschool my brother and me, and gave me a number of tools that helped me step back from my relationship with her, such as discussing with us the work of [sociologist] Erving Goffman, who was a friend of his."

Ultimately, it is hard to write about Pretend You're Actually Alive without resorting to cod psychoanalysis or pretentious art speak. For me, the work has become more fascinating, and no less shocking, the more I have tried to get to grips with it. Lurking beneath the shock factor are dark subtexts, not least a brief reference to Tina's bad deeds: she once ran up debts of $50,000 on her son's credit cards, then persistently claimed the purchases were gifts from men who adored her. In certain photos, mother and son kiss and canoodle; in a teenage diary entry, he names her alongside models and film stars in a list of "girls I wanted to do".

Did he ever get turned on when taking the photographs? "I don't know what to say …" he laughs. "There are many ways to be excited. Towards a sexual object, towards direct honesty and openess. I think already in the background there were some foggy boundary issues. What people talk about as being Oedipal – there's a flirtation with that, but the boundaries were never actually crossed." Ledare sighs at the idea of the work being taken so literally. "There's a lot of emphasis on me being her son, but the work looks at archetypal relationships; also fantasy life and social conventionseverybody who looks at it brings their own understanding of their own relationships. We end up displacing what is culturally taboo. The work is trying to look at those blind spots."

Ledare says he became friends with the young men pictured in his mother's bed. "They all saw the work and approved it. But like any nuclear-family situation, in some ways they were on the periphery. They weren't freaked out: they understood the work in terms of the relationship between a man and a woman, which is all very acceptable. But it also shows my mother as a woman turning 50, still being very sexually active. That is a situation we tend not to share publicly, but something that resonates with the majority of real, lived experience."

If the photographs of his mother having sex are wilful provocation, as I suspect, there are other, more sombre images that broach her fear of ageing and death, including one in which she poses as a corpse.

There's something fascinating about the balance of power between the two – does he feel he exploited her at all, or is his mother in fact more radical than him? "I think our agendas are different. She's maybe more iconoclastic. There is a masochistic position that she was acting out, as a way of taking control, achieving an upper hand in the dynamic of the family. She was a ballet dancer so she is very aware of her body and performance. She was publicly doing what she was doing already. You know, she was working as a stripper, and very upfront about it."

Ledare has made some challenging work since Pretend You're Actually Alive, including a series called Double Bind, in which he intimately photographed his ex-wife, Meghan, in a country cabin over several days. Her new husband – photographer Adam Fedderley, who had magnanimously agreed to the project – then followed Ledare's request to photograph her later in the exact same setting. Fedderley subsequently gave the undeveloped photographs to Ledare, who made the series from both sets of shots.

But Double Bind never quite compares to the transgressive jolt of Pretend You're Actually Alive, its outright assault on propriety as well as its inherent bigger question: does the semblance of art make it acceptable to photograph your mother having sex?

So looking back, what impact did this unholy collaboration have on its willing participants? Ledare has no regrets. What about his mother? "She sees the importance in putting herself forward in a way that provokes people to think. She's an extremely brave and articulate person."

There is a revealing piece of text in Pretend You're Actually Alive. It reads: "One day I told my Mom jokingly, 'As long as you regard your life as fiction, in the very least you'll have some interesting experiences.' She replied, 'Finally somebody who understands me.'"

http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/
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New Yorker photographer creates technique moving pictures

Jamie Beck, a renowned New Yorker photographer, with the help of web designer Kevin Burg, developed a new technique that promises to revolutionize the digital images.

Called "cinemagraphs", your images are always something more than photos. The technique has totally changed the concept of the famous animated GIFs on the Internet. What Jamie does is subtly animate small details of photos, creating true works of art in the modern world.

The first image produced (above) in February 2011 was a success and began an overwhelming demand for the couple to produce photos in the fashion industry and advertising.

To see more pictures you can access Tumblr Jamie Beck at address fromme-toyou.tumblr.com or fotomovimento.tumblr.com, combines several images with the technique.

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Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013

From a monkey blasted with snowflakes to elephants socialising around a pool of water: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 reveals incredible insights into life in the animal kingdom.

A South African photographer who got up close to African elephants to capture the moment they congregated around a still body of water while a baby ran past, won the overall competition.

Fourteen-year-old photographer Udayan Rao Pawar has also been recognised as Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 for his image of crocodiles called Mother’s little headful.

The photographs will go on show to the public at the Natural Hoistory Museum, London, from October 18 before a national tour.

From polar bears lurking in icy waters, to crowns made of baby crocodiles, the winners of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 captured nature at its most surprising.

But this year's over-all winner is a South African photographer who got up close and personal with African elephants to capture the moment they congregated around a still body of water that caught their reflections, while one of the baby mammals ran past.

A 14-year-old photographer won Young Wildlife Photographer of the year 2013 for his image of gharial crocodiles that sees a mother croc wearing her brood on her head, which looks a little like a crown made of crocodiles.

Essence of elephants: South African photographer Greg du Toit beat almost 43,000 entries from 96 countries to be crowned this year's winner with his enigmatic portrait of African elephants in the Northern Tuli Game reserve in Botswana. The image was taken from a hide at ground-level using a slow shutter speed to create an atmosphere and show the giant animals in a ghostly way

Mother's little headful: Udayan Rao Pawar's image shows gharial crocodiles on the banks of the Chambal River in Madhya Pradesh, India - an area increasingly under threat from illegal sand mining and fishing. The hatchlings swam onto a female's head, presumably because they felt safe there, said the young photographer

The winners of the competition were announced at a gala held at the Natural History Museum, where the photographs will go on show to the public from October 18.

South African photographer Greg du Toit beat almost 43,000 entries from 96 countries to be crowned this year's winner with his enigmatic portrait of African elephants in the Northern Tuli Game reserve in Botswana.

Called essence of elephants, the image was takn from a hide at ground-level using a slow shutter speed to create an atmosphere and show the giant animals in a ghostly way.

Mr du Toit used a wide-angle lens tilted up to emphasise the size of whatever elephant entered the foreground and chose a narrow aperture to create a large depth of field so that any elephants in the background would also be in focus, as well as using a polarising filter.

Snow moment: Jasper Doest photographed the famous Japanese macaques around the hot springs of Jigokudani and was fascinated by the surreal effects created by the arrival of a cold wind. Occasionally, a blast would blow through the steam rising off the pools and if it was snowing, the result would be a mesmerising pattern of swirling steam and snowflakes, which would whirl around any macaques warming up in the pools. He waited in the snow until an adult appeared and jumped on a rock in the middle of the pool. 'When I started shaking off the snow, I knew this was the moment,' he said

The fact that most images of polar bears show them on ice says more about the practical difficulties faced by humans than it does about the bears' behaviour. Mr Souders took his boat to Hudson Bay, Canada and spotted this bear 30 miles offshore. 'I approached her very slowly and then drifted. It was a cat-and-mouse game. I could hear her slow breathing as she watched me below the surface or the exhalation as she surfaced, increasingly curious. It was very special,' he said. The midnight sun was filtered through smoke from forest fires raging farther south, a symptom of the warming Arctic

However, while considerable skill was required to create the final picture, the photographer got lucky when a baby elephant raced past the hide so close that he could ahve touched her, allowing Mr du Toit to capture the movement seen in the final picture.

Ever since he first picked up a camera, Mr du Toit has photographed African elephants. He said: ‘For many years I’ve wanted to create an image that captures their special energy and the state of consciousness that I sense when I’m with them. This image comes closest to doing that.’ 

'My goal was to throw caution to the wind; to abandon conventional photographic practices in an attempt to capture a unique elephant portrait. This image hints at the special energy I feel when I am with elephants,' he added.

Mr du Toit's photo will take centre stage at the forthcoming exhibition that celebrates the rich array of life on our planet, reflecting its beauty and also highlighting its fragility. 

After its London premiere, the exhibition embarks on a UK and international tour, to be enjoyed by millions of people across the world.

The cauldron: Sergey Gorshko's photograph is the only one not to contain an animal. On November 29 2012 heard that Plosky Tolbachnik - one of the two volcanoes in the Tolbachnik volcanic plateau in Russia - had begun to erupt. He boarded a helicopter to get a photograph of the event and despite hot air buffeting the helicopter, Mr Gorshko strapped himself to the open door of the aircraft and kept taking photographs

Dive buddy: The beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico are traditional nesting sites for the endangered green turtle, which attract tourists. 'The turtles are so used to seeing people in the water that they think we're just part of the environment,' said Mr Sandoval. 'This metre-long female, grazing on seagrass, took no notice of me, apart from glancing up briefly'

Chair of the judging panel, accomplished wildlife photographer Jim Brandenburg said: 'Greg’s image immediately catapults us to African plains. This image stood out for both its technical excellence and the unique moment it captures – it is truly a once in a lifetime shot.'

Fourteen-year-old photographer Udayan Rao Pawar has also been recognised as Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 for his image called Mother’s little headful. 

It shows an arresting scene of gharial crocodiles on the banks of the Chambal River in Madhya Pradesh, India - an area increasingly under threat from illegal sand mining and fishing.

To take the photograph, Mr Pawar camped near a nesting colony of gharials on the banks of the Chambal River – two groups of them, each with more than 100 hatchlings.

The spat: Brazil's Pantanal was the setting for a jaguar fight. A male appeared and approached a female, who was lying in what appeared to be a pose of enticement but she rose, growled and suddenly charged, slamming the male back as he reared up to avoid her outstretched claws. The pair then disappeared into the undergrowth to resume their courtship.

Sticky situation: In May, the seafaring lesser noddies head for land to breed. Their arrival on the tiny island of Cousine in the Seychelles coincides with peak web size for the red-legged golden orb-web spiders. The female spiders, which can grow to the size of a hand, create colossal webs up to 1.5 metres in diameter in which the tiny males gather that can catch passing birds. Noddies regularly fly into the webs. This bird was exhausted, said Mr Pretorius said freed the bird to save it from its fate

Before daybreak, he crept down and hid behind rocks beside the babies. ‘I could hear them making little grunting sounds,’ he said.

‘Very soon a large female surfaced near the shore, checking on her charges. Some of the hatchlings swam to her and climbed onto her head. Perhaps it made them feel safe.’

It turned out that she was the chief female of the group, looking after all the hatchlings.

Gharials were once found in rivers all over the Indian subcontinent but today just 200 or so breeding adults remain in just two per cent of the former range.

Mr Pawar said: ‘The Chambal River is the gharial’s last stronghold but is threatened by illegal sand-mining and fishing.’

Other finalists captured a variety of animals from fighting jaguars and a to a monkey in Japan shaking snow from its coat to create a flurry of flakes.

They also got involved in the shots including interacting with a turtle underwater, freeing a bird from a sticky spiderweb and even risking life and limb to capture a volcanic eruption.

Lucky pounce: Mr Stefanison spotted this fox in Yellostone National Park, USA. It quartered the grassland, back and forth, and then started staring intently at a patch of ground, giving the photographer just enough warning of the action to come. When it sprung up, Connor got his shot. And when it landed, the fox got his mouse

Sergey Gorshko's photograph is the only one not to contain an animal. On November 29 2012 he received a phone call he had been waiting for to tell him that Plosky Tolbachnik - one of the two volcanoes in the Tolbachnik volcanic plateau in Russia - had begun to erupt.

'I've gone to the area many times, but it had been 36 years since the last eruption, so I dropped everything and went,' he said.

He had to take a helicopter in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius and flew towards the cloud of ash, smoke and steam to wait until a strong wind parted the clouds and he had a fleeting glimpse of the crater.

In these moments he could see a 200-metre high fountain of lava and fast-flowing molten rivers of lave running down the volcano, sweeping away all nature in their path.

Despite hot air buffeting the helicopter, Mr Gorshko strapped himself to the open door of the aircraft and kept taking photographs.

'I just kept shooting, changing lenses and camera angles, knowing I had one chance, hoping that I'd take one image that might do justice to what I was witnessing,' he said.

The flight path: This female barred owl had a territory in Burnaby, British Columbia. Mr Stefanison watched her for some time, familiarising himself with her flight paths until he knew her well enough to set up the shot. He set up his camera and put a dead mouse on a platform above the camera and waited for the swoop. 'She grabbed the mouse, flew back to her perch and began calling to her mate. It is one of the most exciting calls to hear in the wild,' he said

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United Photo Press trae imágenes de todo el mundo a la Casa de la Cultura

United Photo Press, una asociación de reporteros gráficos de todo el mundo, trae a la ciudad 33 imágenes que se expondrán en la Casa de la Cultura hasta el 25 de octubre cada tarde de lunes a viernes de 6 a 9:30.

Una muestra de imágenes que mezclan lo periodístico con lo artístico, fotos de momentos o costumbres de cualquier latitud del mundo, o simples paisajes que invitan a la reflexión del que puso en esa escena el objetivo de una cámara.

Una muestra internacional que llega a Maracena de la mano de la Feria Internacional de Arte, FIARTE, que habitualmente trae a la ciudad obras de artistas de todo el mundo. En esta ocasión fotografías con las que se da por iniciada la temporada de exposiciones en las salas maraceneras.

Exposiciones con las que abrir ojo y mente a diversas realidades del mundo. 33 instantáneas con las que dar una vuelta al mundo, desde la guerra a la paz, el frenesí o la tranquilidad, el mar o la montaña…

La delegada de Fiarte en España, Virtu Barros, invitó a visitar la muestra. Gracias a su contacto con ‘United PhotoPress’ trabajan con imágenes de reporteros de todo el mundo que muestran en exposiciones intinerantes como la que acoge la Casa de la Cultura hasta final de mes.

El concejal de Cultura, Antonio Ortigosa, también asistió a la apertura de esta muestra incluyendo a la fotografía como forma de expresión artística. Al reporterismo como forma de captar realidades que también pueden ser cultura en el amplio sentido de esta palabra que su concejalía quiere impulsar.

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Rape Camps brought to light in the last movie from the most prominent Bosnian film director

Jasmila Zbanic

Rape Camps brought to light in the last movie from the most prominent Bosnian film director.

During this year edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, we had the chance to know more about the latest project from one of the most prominent movie directors from Bosnia. 

The movie "For Those Who Can Tell No Tales" which had in July its World Premiere at Toronto film festival, is the last work from Jasmila Zbanic, mostly known for her Golden Bear winning film "Grbavica".

The idea for her last project have grown from the real life experience which Kym Vercoe, the main actress from the movie, have faced while visiting Visegrad in Bosnia i Herzegovina. During her stay, an interesting festival was running on the area and due to that a spa hotel just outside Visegrad was recommended. It was only when she returned home, in Australia, that she found out that during the war, the Vilina Vlas Hotel, which was recommended in the guidebook, had been a rape camp. Questions have been raised why there was no information in the guidebook or the town itself about such events. Such intriguing fact made Kym return to Visegrad to investigate the hidden story all by herself. 

Interesting facts:

During the shooting of the new movie from Jasmila Zbanic, the crew was not able to get permission to film inside the hotel. Only outside filming was allowed. Jasmila just approach to the situation with the interesting statement "in order to tell the truth, you have to lie".

The truth is that during the conflict more than 200 women were raped at the Hotel. Now-a-days, the place is used as a modern designful hotel.

An interesting fact that happen during the shooting was that Jasmila asked a Serbian friend to act as the director of the movie due to her Bosnian origins. This request was done only to prevent eventual conflicts during the production of the movie.

The conference end up with a good Remark about the current status of Bosnian cinema. It was asked to the director her opinion why in the last 10 years, 120 Bosnian movies won awards. Jasmila refuse to call it a BOOM in the Bosnian cinema panorama. Her opinion is that Bosnian people are very good story tellers and that's the reason of such achievement. Unfortunately there is not so much support for such efforts.

Text and Photography by Ricardo Praga

Web: www.ricardopraga.com

Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsAg-kxxEo0thWOZrSndQQA

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The UNITED PHOTO PRESS will publish internationally the book:

“WORLD – black & white”+ Painters

The UNITED PHOTO PRESS will publish internationally the book:

"WORLD - black & white" + Painters

Release FNAC, Bertrand and others in Europe, for Christmas 2013, with pre-launch on the Internet in November 2013, and spread around the world where they are our international members, Portugal, United States, Brazil, Mexico , China, Argentina, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, England, France, Colombia, Japan, Australia, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Iceland, Canada, Chile, Algeria and others.

Rules and graphic procedure

1. Can participate in the international book "WORLD - black & white" + Painters, all members of United Photo Press that have to date annual quotas, or become new members until the 30 of september 2013 (inclusive).

2. The size of the book 21 by 21 cm. Each member is entitled to 4 leaves / 8 pages  and photographers can only send 10 photographs in black and white + photo name + bio,etc, the remaining artists can upload 10 photos + the name of his works + bio, etc ... in JPG format, 300 dpi, for mail: webmaster@unitedphotopressworld.org

• The paging of the book is made by the graphic design of the UPP

3. The pages that have written information such as the name of the photographs and other, will have to be necessarily in English. Should not have sexual content, racist, xenophobic or any other behavior that is deemed inappropriate to common sense.

4. Participation

Participation in International Book UPP "WORLD - black & white" + Painters, obeys the commitment of the member  advance purchase 10 books at cost of € 20 (twenty euros) unit, for a total of € 265 (two hundred and sixty five euros). Includes: launch, printing, logistics and international exhibitions with T-Shirt participation.

• Portugal - Setubal (book launch and international exhibition)

House of Culture - Arts Space - 10 at January 31, 2014

• Madeira - MIAB (book launch and international exhibition)

Madeira International Art Biennale Fine Art

Electricity Museum - January 16 to February 16, 2014

The cover price of the book retail is 35 € (thirty-five euros), with printing on the back of the price in euros, dollars and pounds. The payment will be made until the day 30 september, 2013 will UNITED PHOTO PRESS by bank transfer:

VALUE: € 265.00 (two hundred sixty five euros)

NIB: 0035 0019 00004008930 81

IBAN: PT50 0035 0019 00004008930 81

BIC: CGDIPTPL

WESTERN UNION and outside Europe

5. Shipping

The shipment cost of the book are for the account of a member of the UPP. Shipments of the book are in Europe will charge or bank transfer in advance, for the rest of the world will be advised of the amount in advance. The member of the UPP may subsequently acquire more books, always at the cost price of € 20 (twenty euros) unit, plus respective shipping.

6. Additional Information:

info@unitedphotopress.net

+351 9191 3535 5 vodafone free call

+351 9200 4804 6 Lycamobile free call

facebook.com / unitedphotopress

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