Eye Mama - by Karni Arieli (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

• "We all have or had a mother. But does that mean we know how she thinks and feels? And what does she see? Here are heart-breaking and weird, tired, funny and above all honest looks from mothers into their everyday lives." -- Der Spiegel.
• "A constellation of visions to remind us that motherhood comes in different forms and all of them are worthy of attention." -- Vogue Italia.
• "The final result is stunning. A deeply moving visual feast, each image capturing the most recognizably intimate, the most fraught, the most gorgeously humdrum moment in the life of a mother, a family, a home." -- romper.
• "Stress, love, joy--what mothers photographed during the pandemic." -- National Geographic.
• "It's authentic, beautiful, inclusive, tender and visceral... Finally, the complex, personal experience of motherhood is explored, examined, and celebrated in all its rich nuance." -- Aesthetica.

The Eye Mama book is a photographic portfolio showcasing the mama narrative and the mama gaze, what female and non-binary photographers see when they look at, and into the home. Based on the Eye Mama Project, a photography platform sharing a curated feed by photographers worldwide who identify as mamas, the Eye Mama book brings together more than 150 images to render what is so often invisible -- caregiving, mothering, family and the post-motherhood self -- visible.

Eye Mama was created by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker and photographer Karni Arieli during the pandemic, when everyone around the world was in lockdown and spending more time in the home, often consumed by caregiving. The visual movement centres around the "mama gaze", an introspective look at home and care by female and non-binary visual artists. This iconic book of photographs brings together the images from this movement, experiencing the light and dark of care and parenthood, the beauty of close-up details, love and hardship, and most importantly, the personal poetic truths of these mamas and artists.

The Eye Mama book highlights the narrative of motherhood, allowing us to see for the first time in history through the eyes of mamas worldwide, because mama gaze matters! The Eye Mama Project has been featured in National Geographic, Vogue, Stern, Romper, British Journal of Photography, Creative Review and more. Go to www.eyemamaproject.com to find out more. Text in English and German.

Review Quotes

Eye Mama is a global photography project conceived by Karni Arieli to document the varied experiences of home and family. Featuring the work of more than 200 female and non-binary artists, a book of the images is published by teNeues-- "The Guardian"

In just nine months, the account expanded from work by Arieli and her circle of friends to 20,000 submissions taken by mothers from over 30 countries, and counting. The platform became a stage for intimate entanglements with strangers - a portrait of motherhood during an unprecedented period of history. The images....span the gamut of play to exhaustion. Tender, direct and honest - their gesture of vulnerability converges many forms of joy and struggle.-- "British Journal of Photography"

It's not easy being a mother.....During the many lockdowns, it has often been talked about how the figures of mothers were the most penalized: locked up at home with their children, often forced to constantly switch between remote work and maternal tasks. Yet, these pieces of the story were not being shown in mainstream media. In all moments of joy, sadness, confusion, madness, mamas were there, leading their families in going through the lockdown, creatively and emotionally. Karni Arieli, a photographer and BAFTA-nominated filmmaker, started intensely documenting her family throughout the lockdown and watching other mothers doing the same an idea grew in her mind: to put these genuine pictures taken by mothers together, in order to show the emotional landscape that was happening in everyone's homes, all around the world....-- "Vogue Italia"

The photos can be beautiful, powerful or painful, but all of them portray a mother's love as seen through her own eyes...Now Mrs. Arieli has published a book, "Eye Mama: Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood" (teNeues), featuring 228 images by photographers both well-known and unknown, from over 50 countries.-- "The Wall Street Journal"

There are no facemasks in the book. No portraits through windows. This is not a publication about the pandemic. It's not even about parenting but, indeed, something bigger. It is about how much of ourselves we reveal and what might be the repercussions of that openness.-- "Aesthetica Magazine"

About the Author

Karni Arieli is a photographer and filmmaker of Israeli-British descent. A mother of two boys, she creates casual fantasy films and still pictures. Karni is one half of the directing duo Karni and Saul, BAFTA-nominated creators of music videos, commercials and short films. Under the name k & s, they have made films for Random Acts, Nowness, Film4 and the BBC. Karni also continues to work on the ongoing art/photography project, EYE MAMA, which features honest, candid motherhood from female photographers around the world. It has been featured in Vogue, Creative Review and the British Journal of Photography and National Geographic.