Photography: How Shooting Things With My Mom Saved Our Relationship
We all know the stereotype, moms want to sell off their teenage girls and the teenage girls want their moms to disappear in a puff of smoke. In fact I’m surprised when I hear of a mom and daughter who had a wonderfully healthy relationship growing up, especially through the teenage years.
My mom and I were not so lucky. We were constantly at odds and I ended up moving out just after my 17th birthday. I don’t think I really talked to my mom again until I was at least 21. And I for sure didn’t need my mom until I was 27. I am now 28 and I love my mom dearly. Our relationship can only be compared to a very badly fractured bone. It has taken years to heal, and while there are still phantom pains from the original break? The bone is healed stronger than it ever was before it was injured.
Ironically the catalyst that helped us heal? Shooting things.
My mom is one of the best landscape photographers I know. One of the greatest memories I will ever have of her is from two years ago, she took me to her local camera club meeting and as soon as she walked in the door she lit up. She loved talking about pictures, looking at pictures, taking pictures and planning when she would take another picture. I have never seen anything more natural in my moms hands than her camera.
Thankfully some of her talent and her natural ability with a camera has passed on to me. However I could never capture a landscape the way she can and try as she might, she hasn’t quite mastered my style of photography either. But this in and of itself is a gift. Put us in a situation together with our cameras and we will never take the same picture. We’ll learn from each other and attempt to teach each other how we see things, but neither of us will ever quite see things the same as the other. Just like our entire lives up until now.
The biggest difference now is that we respect what makes us so different, yet allows us to bring so much pretty into the world just by doing what comes most naturally to us.
How did you learn to appreciate your mom?
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Casey Mullins likes to take pictures more than she likes to do a lot of other things. She is mom to a curly headed heir, is gestating a spare and loves her husband so much it’s truly disgusting at times. You can find her all sorts of places but the biggest bits of her are on her blog, moosh in indy.
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Once I became a mother did I realize all that my mom went through raising kids and why she made some of the decisions she did!
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Great article! As a mom of two young (8 & 5) girl, I look into the future with excitement tinged with trepidation–will our relationship be like mine with my mother’s, or hers with her mother? I hope not! I hope that we can find the same kind of common interest to bring us together. Thank you for the example of hope and love!
I loved this post!
For the most part, my mom and I had a very good relationship but adulthood and motherhood have definitely deepened my appreciation for her and what she is good at.
Love the humor in this line “Ironically the catalyst that helped us heal? Shooting things.”
LOVE!!!!