You Have Nothing to Worry About.

You Have Nothing to Worry About, is a complex and difficult body of work that can be broadly defined as documentary photography. Since 2009, I have been making photographs of my mentally ill, substance-abusing mother. Her diagnoses change frequently—from alcoholism to dissociative identity disorder—and my relationship with her has been fraught with animosity for as long as I can remember. I am fully aware that my mother thrives on being the center of attention and that, at times, our portrait sessions encourage her erratic behavior. The photographs are simultaneously upsetting and encouraging; honest and theatrical; loving and hateful. By turning the camera toward my mother and my relationship with her, I capture her behavior as an echo of my own emotional response. The project has become a cathartic process for both of us. She attributes seeing the images to her reason for seeking help with alcohol abuse. The images function like an ongoing conversation.