Mother

The Israeli-born photographer Elinor Carucci made her name by training a lens on herself and her husband, parents, and siblings—a theme first brought to public attention with her monograph Closer.
The body of work featured in this forceful book began approximately in 2003, when she was pregnant with her twins, Eden and Emmanuelle. She has always photographed the substance of daily life, and this work is no exception, inviting us to participate in the most tender interactions between a mother and her children. From candid depictions of pregnancy to captivating images of her son and daughter at rest and at play, Carucci’s photographs display an intimacy that can be startling, even unsettling. Yet the emotions they reveal are universal, familiar to anyone who has experienced parenthood or spends time with young children. She records her family’s routines and crises with profound honesty: an infant’s fragility; fleeting childhood pleasures; a parent’s hollow-eyed fatigue; tears, runny noses, and scars. The drama of these domestic scenes is heightened by Carucci’s nuanced use of chiaroscuro, direct light, and extreme close‑ups.