I Remember Tierney

Tierney Gearon, photographer, former model, dancer, mother, daughter.
In my search to find a new direction in my own life, I have been seeking out those I've known and taken a look at where their passions have led them. Like my old friend, photographer Donna Demari, fellow model Tierney Gearon also chose to express herself by shooting the world as she sees it, through the lens of a camera. After a controversial 2001 showing at the Saatchi Gallery in London, where some of her work contained nude images of her own young children, Tierney was thrust into the international spotlight when the English press pounced on the story and Tierney became the reluctant poster child for artistic freedom. In 2006, The Mother Project, a documentary, four years in the making by Jack Youngelson and Peter Sutherland follows Tierney as she puts together her most recent body of work, a series of 70 photographs focused on her mentally ill mother entitled Daddy, Where Are You?
As for the years when my path coincided with Tierney's - we were both living in Paris, working with the same agency, both American and former dancers. We would often end up in Hamburg, Germany, working for the same client, staying in the same rooming house and traveling to and from Paris together. She stood apart even then, in a very personal way that you could never put your finger on. Years later, we both married, moved to London, eventually divorcing and returning home to the States. I am not surprised by her work, despite the alarm the images have caused in the media. I admire her for being true to herself and when I heard her voice on the The Mother Project video trailer, it made me smile.