Linda McCartney & Mary McCartney. Mother Daughter

About

Mother Daughter: An exciting exhibition at Fotografiska in which the links between the past and the present create an emotional and inspiring journey, on which we travel with the late Linda McCartney and Mary McCartney into their vast lives. Spanning three decades, works by the photographers are organised to reveal a symbiotic harmony between them and rather than distinguishing between works, the installation proposes their vision of the world as one.

Together, Linda McCartney and Mary McCartney explore the connective tissue of family, common experience, and a love of the photographic medium. Their images appear to us as highly instinctual; while revealing a great ability to capture fleeting moments of intimacy and offer us a distinctly unique body of work that evokes mystique in the ordinary and every day.

This exhibition, Mother Daughter, first shown at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, is a treasure trove of moments derived from relaxed interactions with family, a dazzling array of celebrities–Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, B.B King, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Kate Moss, Rihanna – and everyday life. There is an almost tangible shared sensibility between mother and daughter in how they establish an emotional rapport with their subjects and exact a sense of their true selves.

“The feeling of intimacy and observing people and striving for the intensity of characters evolved into why I’m obsessed with taking pictures.” says Mary McCartney.

The way Linda used to describe her way of photographing divulges a lot about her philosophy for life in general: “I think you just feel instinctive, you got to just click on the moment. Not before it and not after it. I think if you are worried about light meters and all that stuff, you just miss it. For me,to it just came from my inners, as they say. Just excitement, I love it - I get very excited.” Linda was way ahead of her time in many respects. Famous for her passion for the vegetarian lifestyle and promoting animal rights, she revolutionised vegetarian home cooking with her vegetarian cookbooks and food company.

Beginning in the mid-sixties, Linda photographed such icons as Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and The Grateful Dead, producing quintessential images that reflected the musical revolution of her era. Her direct and distinctive photographs reflect the individual charisma of her subjects. In 1969, one year after becoming the first female photographer to produce a cover for Rolling Stone Magazine, Linda married Beatles member Paul McCartney. Alongside photography, her interests ranged from writing and music to filmmaking and animal-rights activism; she continued to document landscape, portraits, family, and animals throughout her life.

Mary expands on her mother’s affinities and like Linda, her candid eye bonds with and draws out people’s inner vibrancy, transmitting it to the photographic image. Her ‘natural’ images focus intently on her subjects, from her intimate study of professional ballerinas at the Royal Ballet to candid moments behind the scenes of fashion shows, and strangers on city streets. As well as shooting the 2013 Art Calendar for renowned lens manufacturer Zeiss, Mary has captured portraits of major figures in culture and society, such as Lou Reed, Eric Clapton, Vivienne Westwood, Helen Mirren and Queen Elizabeth II. Her recent photographs of strangers stand under her Instagram campaign #someone.

"The exhibition has become an actual conversation, the same one that mother and daughter shared about their craft over the decades. An inspiring, very lively, and sometimes intriguing journey that Fotografiska now is very happy to share with our guests,” says Johan Vikner, Fotografiska’s Exhibition Manager.