Reception: Sage Sohier: Witness to Beauty
March 3, 2017, 5:30pm – 8:00pm
Carroll and Sons Gallery
450 Harrison Ave. Boston, MA 02118

Sage Sohier: Witness to Beauty
February 15, 2017 – April 1, 2017

This is a series about my mother as she ages, and my relationship with her, that I began to work on in a concerted way in 2000. For a brief period in her youth, my mother was a model, photographed by Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, and once on the cover of LIFE Magazine. As a child, I grew up as a witness to her beauty: I used to lie on her bed, with the dogs, and watch her try on clothes and study herself critically in the mirror. As I grew older, there was no use competing with her, and so I assumed my position, quite happily, on the other side of the camera.

I became even more interested in photographing her when age began to challenge her air of timeless perfection, making it – to me – all the more poignant (bemused as I’ve been by my own changing face in the mirror). So, this is about the aging family: how some things never change, and others, inevitably, do. Some of these pictures are re-creations of old family snapshots from my childhood. Most are collaborative, made on a tripod with a self-timer. -Sage Sohier