The Key is in The Window
Late in 2013 I showed Ida, my then 89-year-old-mother, a photographic portrait series of realistic dolls, The Presence of Their Absence: The Portraits. Just beginning to show signs of dementia, Ida responded strongly to the dolls in the photos. So I got her one. A former maternity nurse, Ida had always loved babies (and small dogs), and treated the doll as if it were a real baby. I began to photograph Ida and Tabitha, the doll as she'd named it, and myself. I developed a portfolio with a keyhole-shaped closure. The series, The Key is in the Window, takes its title from a phrase in Kaddish, Alan Ginsberg’s epic about Naomi, his mad, dying mother. This is the first phase of this project
