MOTHERSHIP

MOTHERSHIP

Can you truly understand a person’s life through their book collection?

Mothership is a portrait of my mother, Dianna, as she descended into the depths of early-onset dementia. Guided by her collection of books on New Age belief systems, I photographed her both at home and during road trips to supernatural and otherworldly locations. The project illuminates the degenerative effects of dementia on individuals and their families while also capturing unexpected moments of clarity, self-awareness, and connection.

For Dianna, the New Age movement provided alternatives to a Eurocentric worldview, drawing from a range of religious, mystical, and mythological traditions to guide her spiritual path. As a single parent in the 1980s, she devoted her rare moments of free time to studying books on metaphysical religions, holistic healing, UFOs, and self-help. Her curiosity was boundless as she sought wisdom beyond earthly limits.

As dementia advanced, Dianna’s connection to the world and to her family grew tenuous. Her lifelong pursuit of higher consciousness was gradually stolen by the disease’s relentless progression. Yet, my mother and I discovered new ways to communicate, using her book collection as our guide. Road trips to interstellar roadside attractions—Stonehenge II, Inner Space Caverns, NASA Space Center—sparked moments of unexpected joy and lucidity. In these places, Dianna tapped into a deep well of spiritual wonder and inner light, and I glimpsed the woman she was before dementia. As her mind dimmed, these photographs contemplate the impermanence of memory, my fear of inheriting this disease, and the act of reimagining life—and photography—when rules and norms dissolve. At its heart, this is a story of two women reaching for connection through familiar totems as they navigated a new psychological and emotional terrain.