Author Description

Includes DVD (28 minutes). Gay Block began photographing her mother, Bertha Alyce, in 1973 and continued until Bertha Alyce's death resulting from a stroke in 1991. This collection of Block's photographs (sections of which involve nudity) presents her complicated, and at times difficult, relationship with her mother and a mother-daughter quest for healing. This intensely personal and intimate account could easily be a reflection of any family today. Essays by Eugenia Parry, author of Crime Album Stories: Paris 1886-1902, and Kathleen Stewart Howe, curator of the University of New Mexico Museum, accompany the photographs. To complete the presentation, the award-winning DVD 'Bertha Alyce' is included (28 minutes in length).