Nina Rder’s photography project “Mutters Schuhe” (Mother’s Shoes) is a visual dialogue between her mother, her grandmother, and herself. These three sets of shots are based on pivotal moments or memories from Rder’s mother’s life. The clothes that they are wearing belonged to her mother and reference moments like Rder’s mother’s prom night and her life as a hairdresser.
Rder chose to recreate her mother’s memories as a way to, “get to know my mother better and maybe to learn indirectly more about myself. I wanted to see her not only as my mother – but as a woman who had a life before me. A life full of hopes, first loves, dreams and ideas.” One of the memories referenced was her mother’s disastrous prom with a date who could not dance and who brought carnations, a flower used as an offering for graves in Germany.
Rder wanted to see how her mother’s memory changed upon reflection, how her grandmother perceived these past moments, and how Rder herself responded to the stories represented through the photographs. The narrative of her overall artwork is predominantly influenced by her family’s life, and so this set was an extension of Rder’s artistic connections to her lineage.
Nina Rder
via [Visual News]