Body Becoming by American photographer Leah Edelman Brier is unapologetically audacious in its honesty and unashamedly graphic in its delivery. Presenting a conjoined documentation of both her sixty one year old mother and twenty one year old sister, the series examines themes of maternity, sexuality and genetics, focusing on the allure of youth and the impending decay that comes with age. Presenting a panorama of both staged and natural images, Body Becoming is an insight to the unique perspective of Edelman, without the hindrance of censorship.
Dorrell Merritt: So, with today being Easter Sunday, what have you been up to?
Leah Edelman-Brier: (Ha!) Not much really. I baked a cake, spent time with my cats while my boyfriend was at work. We have a little family dinner gathering later but it’s not really my holiday.
Are Easter Eggs much of a thing in the USA? In London we’re overwhelmed with them, but they don’t seem to be so big in Berlin at all.
I think so? I saw lots of Instagram posts about them this year; everybody trying to one-up the other with their painting talents.
And where abouts are you based at the moment?
I am in the state of Minnesota to be exact, sitting in my apartment.
How does it compare to the likes of your hometown of Rhode Island?
Oh gosh, it doesn’t! I have too much love for my home state. Rhode Islanders tend to have a lot of pride since people forget that our state exists. I live in Saint Paul, which reminds me a lot of my roots in Providence. But I miss the ocean and getting everywhere quickly, my friends, the sense of community.
And as an artist, do you feel as if either one works better with your artistic process / development of ideas?
Well, I’m still new to the Midwest and as boisterous as I am I have a hard time finding subjects to photograph. So I am still creating an artist space out here, whereas back home I have my family, who are my favourite subjects and muses…so in that case it is very different for me. I don’t have the built in safety of driving out to my parents house for a weekend of shooting. Everything has to be planned out in advance now that the drive is 20 hours long.
I’ve had to shoot a lot of self portraits because of that. I’m so sick of looking at myself!
I understand the perils of finding people to photograph, especially when you have specifics in mind. I love that even beyond Body Becoming, the majority of your models are curvaceous; fuller figured subjects. Is this a conscious decision?
Well my Body Becoming series uses the same two models throughout (my mother and my sister); their bodies look like mine and I think I’m drawn to that in other people as well.
Your Body Becoming series reminded me of a similar series I had come across a few years back (by a photographer I will never remember), but this one was rawer; told a more poignant narrative. What was the starting point for the series? Had you ever documented your sister/mother prior to this?
Thank you! This series was sort of born out of another project I was working on. My family have been my photo subjects for a while now. I was making work about them transitioning into a new space and dealing with my mother’s illness. It was much more of the documentary style than BB. I didn’t like that. It felt too simple, so I took a break and during that break turned the camera on myself and just my sister because our bodies were so similar. I became enamored with that visual play. Then, the more I photographed my sister the more my mother felt left out. So one day she came outside in the middle of a shoot and demanded to be part of it. I made a photograph that day which is the staple [at least to me] of this work.
And did you feel as a photographer, that you had to actively try and remove any awkwardness between you three at the beginning, or was it natural?
It was fine. My mom is a stereotypical hippie. I had see her nude before, in passing, around the house. I think it was more awkward for her to be photographed because she doesn’t feel the beauty that I see. She’s self conscious, but so am I and so is my sister, and perhaps every woman is, whether they’ve achieved the ideal beauty or not.
I’ve read a few places online of your interest in “disrupting concepts of ideal beauty with that of the grotesque”. Is this a symbolic grotesqueness, or a literal one that your pursue to share?
Symbolic in that society’s perception of beauty is rigid and applies to a small spectrum of people who are still retouched digitally to reach that ideal. I want to break that. Force people to see beauty differently, more fluid. I want to create beauty where my viewers don’t expect it. And then literally because I do photograph kind of gross things, rotting fruit, gestures that make people feel uneasy.
And I think by consciously choosing Rubenesque women in your work and that of others, is a small way in which the status quo can be challenged. Aside from retouching images, is there an aspect of idealised beauty in society that as an artist frustrates you, and is it hard to avoid being seen as exploitative?
I agree. I guess that you don’t see a lot of women in the media with parts of their body that actually sag. Naturally there are so many types of bodies and they all need to be embraced, not just the one type. And because the media embraces that one type, the rest feel like they’re not good enough. I’ve been asked if I think I’m exploiting my subjects before. That question always stings a little. I feel that that this work is as much about me as it is about my mother and sister. The fact that they are willing to pose for me, in such raw and vulnerable ways speaks to their willingness to be photographed. They know where the images will go. They know it all becomes public. I am beyond honored every time we collaborate.
I like that you refer to it as a collaboration, and I think given the context of the series, it’s a fitting title. The images are as much about you, as they are, them. Did you have any non photographic inspiration for the series, and if so how did you implement them?
The series had a sculptural element that the likes of the internet never really gets to see. I looked at some paintings, Jenny Saville to be specific too. Her renderings of the body is so raw and tactile. I think there’s also a lot of references to the way the ‘Masters’ painted women throughout history (Renaissance & Baroque particularly). The gestures and posing are delicate, and the gaze particularly male. I wanted to mimic some of that in my work while breaking the gaze and and letting the women own their sexuality.
I think when I look closely at your series, it communicates an element of fear. A fear of ageing and to some extent a fear of letting go. But also, a lot of pride both genetic/familial and sexual. When you looked back on the series, was there ever a profound revelation, having seen both who you once were and who you may become?
Oh god yes! I really look at the series as emphasising roles. The mother and the daughter. Even though it’s not my physical self in the photographs that role is one I play and these are my fears, and my sister’s fears. No one wants to become their parent, no matter how wonderful they might be. There’s an image in the series with both the mother and daughter in it where to can see how similar the body types are. The breast hang the same way, the fat develops in the same places. It made my sister cry when she saw it. I don’t think she truly understood the work until we made that picture.
I love that one; they both look so beautiful there. For you personally, seeing both into the past and the future, did it make you feel differently about your own place within the family?
I’m not sure. I think it allowed me to step back and look at our family dynamic differently but it’s hard to explain how or what that meant.
I kind of assumed it would have been a little like Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, except that you can’t change either! (haha)
(Haha) Very much so! And the fact that you can’t change anything, makes it so much more terrifying.
And of course, within the series fertility is displayed in a number of ways. Why was that such an important aspect to implement for you?
Because fertility has a lot to do with desire and beauty. You’re not desirable until you’ve gone through puberty and when you lose the ability to have children you’re no longer desirable. There is an era of sexuality ends and it controls how/if you are perceived as beautiful. Within the work viewers witness the fluctuation a body becoming and unbecoming. It’s like watching a fruit ripen past the point of consumption. When it’s ripe you want it, when it rots you discard it.
Nothing is simple or black & white… I think when you’re young there’s always attention because you are beautiful just by being young, your sexuality is a presence as well as a part of you and there’s no way to detach from it, but when you’re older (I assume) you can detach from your sexuality because you’re not perceived as having one any more. My work plays on that by making the undesirable have that sense of sexuality again. The reality is, it never goes away it just hides deeper within oneself!
I’m guessing the series was shot on Medium Format. I’ll skip asking about the importance of using film, but what I will ask is was there any conscious choice in choosing a format that would give what you wanted to communicate from the series?
Yes, it was mostly shot 6x6, with a little 6x7 thrown in there. Some say a square is harder to compose but there’s something about it that just makes sense for me. It’s tight. It’s a challenge. The waist level viewfinder is what really did it for me. I like looking down and trying to think backwards.
And I think for candid images, like in BB, it helps take a more natural image. What was the hardest part of shooting the series, and do you feel as if it’s completed?
The hardest part was making it cohesive so it could become a series. I shot in a lot of different ways and then had to puzzle piece the work together in a way that made sense. I’m still working on it. I don’t think it’s complete, I don’t know if it ever will be. I started working on it in 2012, so it’s going on 4 years now, though most of the photos were taken 2012-2014.
So the editing process must have been quite a feat! Are you more of a calculative, slow shooter or did you work your way through the films quite fast?
I would edit as I went. Shoot 10 rolls, go through those 10 rolls. I was in grad school when I started this project so there was a high demand to produce and show work. Very good motivation. It helps that I absolutely love editing images too; it’s the picking and choosing of which image stays and which goes that I’m not very good at.
With the influx of younger female photographers inspired by the Nan Goldin’s and Corrine Day’s of old, creating hyper-personal and explicit photography (i.e. Sandy Kim, Rita Lino etc), have you as an artist ever feared being labelled as just young artist creating shocking images for the sake of shock?
With some of my images I have to stop and think is this too much?. There’s a difference between a punch to the gut and having a photograph slap you over the head. The gut punch is raw and meaningful, the slap is for shock value. I want/hope my work has the gut punch; I don’t want my images to be about shock, because ultimately that’s not what I find intriguing. So to some extent, I have to stop and think to make sure what I want to say with a particularly punchy image is not just for the shock value.
How have your mother and sister reacted to seeing the series as a complete artefact? Was there ever a mental pressure for you to be protective over (the level of honesty shown in) how your shot them? I.e. focusing on stretch-marks, unflattering angles, skin ailments etc.
My sister gets shy at first and then brags about it. My mom says that seeing it makes it all the more real for her. I definitely get defensive sometimes, especially of nay-sayers; the vocal people who lash out instead of trying to understand the work. I think the work starts important conversations so I can’t shut someone down just because they disagree with it.
Typically, what negative reactions have you had from viewers who have seen the series?
Well I had my first internet troll (I was pretty giddy about it) who just kept calling the work disgusting because he didn’t want to look at a naked middle aged woman. And another woman who called me a terrible/disrespectful person for not wanting to be like my mother, though that’s what happens when you only read the headline and not the story. It strikes a nerve because it’s not what people expect. It’s not what they desire. But that’s part of my point.
Do you feel as if the series would have been received differently if your sister/mother were had more idealised body shapes?
Yes and no. Yes because part of this series is addressing the beauty myth in the grand scheme of the public sphere and pushing against that to create beauty out of what doesn’t reach that stereotype. Being curvy aids in that push because it’s not the stick thin model we see a lot in the media. But it’s not the curviness of our bodies that’s creating tension, it’s the overweight aspect, we’re not fat but we definitely have some extra cushion, and you can see how that hangs and affects posture. It’s not what people want to look at. No because the mother would still be older and have qualities that the daughter wouldn’t want to have. The fear of becoming your parent doesn’t just pertain to illness and body type, it’s personality and lived experiences, how they yelled at you when you were younger.
What would you say you are the most scared of losing with age; sexual desirability or physical desirability?
That’s hard to say because the sexual and the physical are so convoluted. Perhaps the physical because it’s mostly out of my hands (diet exercise blah blah blah, it can only do so much) whereas sexuality is rooted in the mind.
What did you take, as an artist, and sister/daughter from completing the series?
As a sister/daughter we bonded, we learned about our relationships and vulnerabilities. As an artist…I’m not completely sure. I’m still learning. I think I expanded my own view by investigating the theory behind what I was trying to say/show. I opened up a lot more than I thought I’d have to and addressed, again, an array of vulnerabilities.
What’s the best thing about Melons? (I’ve noticed them frequently throughout your works)
Besides being synonymous with breasts, watermelon is the most amazing fruit I have ever put in my mouth. If you hold one just right you look pregnant so obviously perfect symbol for fertility right there.
When do you feel the most grounded, as a person?
When do I feel the most grounded? Probably never. I have a strong support system which helps but I like being a little all over the place. I’m the most at ease when I’m editing images though. It’s peaceful but sitting still has never been my strong suit.
What direction would you like your work to take, post BB?
I am still making work about the female form but I think it’s stepped away from the specifics that rest with the BB series. My new work is more about women as a whole, dare I say feminism.
What song would you say personifies Body Becoming, for you?
That’s a hard one! There’s way too many to choose from but it would definitely have to an sombre instrumental with intense uplifting parts.
andulkaphoto
dailybridgerton
titsay
kaledo-art
prguitarman
germansingergirl
