Tierney Gearon Video

I really enjoyed watching the documentary about Tierney Gearon. I found her way of taking photos and working with her family really interesting to me. I loved how all of her photos had a really personal, private feeling to them that showed the viewer what her relationships with her family were like. While watching how Gearon talked and interacted with her family members while she took photos of them, was able to give me a different feeling about the photos, than if I just saw them on their own without any introduction. I loved being able to see the conversation leading up to the picture being taken, and then seeing the final photo after. All of her photos were very personal to her, about her life or reflected her childhood growing up. I think the photos that I liked the most, that we saw in the documentary, were of her mother. The relationship that they had was very interesting to watch since her mother would be yelling at her one minute and then be smiling and laughing with her the next. I think their complex relationship with each other was what made it possible for Gearon to capture such beautiful shots of her and her mother. I think one of my favorite moments for the documentary was when Tierney was telling the camera about the last photo we saw her take, of her mother sitting on the grass with her baby laying away from her in the sun. While Tierney was describing this image and what it meant to her, she started crying, saying how growing up she was like the baby being left unattended in the sun while her mother didn't pay attention to her. Watching her cry and talk about this made that particular image way more interesting and made me understand its meaning even more.
If I could compare Tierney Gearon to another contemporary photographer I think it would be Sally Mann. Though Mann's photos do not have the same feeling or look to them that Tierney does, she takes pictures of her children naked, playing around, just like Tierney. Once we finished this documentary, I had a hard time thinking of another contemporary photographer that shot like Tierney, but then I remembered my brother showing me Sally Mann's work and him telling me how some of her pictures of her children naked are a little intense. This is what made me relate her to Gearon because her photos of her children naked stirred up a lot of talk about them being child pornography. Sally Mann's photos are very soft and strange looking at times while Tierney Gearon are more candid and realistic, but also disturbing and strange as well.


Tierney Gearon's Work

Sally Mann's Work