Mother, Photographer
YZM: Did you know this work would become a book or did that idea come after you had assembled it?
EC: At the beginning I had to see how it would develop, but at some point I did realize it would end up as a book, telling the story chronologically, trying to convey the universality of it.
YZM: Francine Prose’s introduction talks about the idea of a photograph revealing secrets; can you comment?
EC: I reveal what I don’t think should be a secret but it many times is. Here is a quote from Wojciech Kutyla who wrote about my work; he put it into words perfectly: “I am especially drawn to the fact that you don’t overly sweeten your images, they are just a description of what is, there is no pretense, no false charm. It’s the life as we all know it. Such a shame that – to many – this is what they are uncomfortable with, since it goes well beyond their awareness, even if it should be obviously familiar.”
YZM: How do your children relate to your photographs, especially as they’re getting older? How do you perceive their experience of the moments when they’re very emotional and there’s a camera right in their face?
EC: First, I had to change the way that I photographed. Many of those shots are a one-frame thing, I mean, they were crying or emotional, I took one frame and picked them up. So I had to become really quick and moments that I could capture were precious. The huge majority of them, I didn’t photograph. I ended up looking at the parents around me and thinking that I’m the one that is taking the least photographs.
Parents today are taking so many pictures, and they’re also posting them on Facebook and now Instagram, so I don’t think even having so many pictures of them was such a big deal in our era of images everywhere. If anything it did bring up conversations between me and my daughter about the kind of images that I’m taking. She asked me why I don’t take pretty images, and actually, with all my fears, I think it led to good conversations about me telling her that these, for me, are beautiful moments, and everything we have in our family, also the difficult days, or the bad days, or the yelling days, are beautiful and inspirational and I embrace them. It ended up being a good message for the kids.
YZM: Technical question: Often your photographs look like someone else has taken them. How do you achieve this effect?
EC: The camera is on a tripod and either I operate the self timer or my husband does, or recently one of my kids. And since I have been photographing myself since I was 15, I got better at getting pieces of life to happen in front of the camera
YZM: Does Israel still exert a strong pull for you?
EC: I visit once a year for 6-7 weeks with the kids. I still love the place and am connected to it in many ways. I also still feel that my work reflects the fact that I was born and raised there; it is a warm place and very family oriented. As much as I love my family, the years away did their part, and I feel that New York is my home, especially after giving birth and raising my children as Americans. Sometimes feel like a foreigner in Israel, which can be a very painful feeling.
