MOMENT OF AFFECTION

"Well obviously I’m biased because Mary is probably my closest friend and the person I’ve known the longest my whole life and a cherished sibling, but I think her work is truly art photography.
 
In my career and my life I have experienced so many different types of photography and have such admiration for the history of the art form, obviously having a mother who I think lead as one of the first and foremost female photographers, but when it comes to Mary’s work, gender is not of interest, it’s the work and its true precision that counts. Her eye for capturing a moment has so many different perspectives, there’s so much soul in her work. So much joy. Technically she is exceptional, which is no small accomplishment not to be forgotten in talking about her work. She shares what I think my mums biggest asset was in her work in that she sees through the lens something that others may not think to capture. And when I experience her work, I feel that I have held a moment in time and in history, and it’s been captured forever.
 
There is a joy in her work, there is a vitality in her work, there is a love of life and a love of nature. She has captured so many moments and many of the pieces and the collection here at Château La Coste reference back such important moments in my life I feel so honoured to be featured in the exhibition. It’s family, it’s friends. I think its hard for me to say which my favourite is because I’m too close to the work probably, but I have a huge admiration and respect for the horses kissing, because as a horse rider I know that that moment is so fragile and so precious when 2 horses noses come together that it’s a fraction of a second before they usually disperse or engage in something more aggressive, it’s a moment that is so fragile  and precious and difficult to capture. I can’t believe that she managed to do that, and in the symmetry of the work and the way in which she captured it … it is full of a kind of gentle understanding off nature and horses, but also she has such beautiful precision in the heart that you see created in this amazing sort of balance between these 2 horses that almost makes it look like they are mirrored or twins.
 
I’m obviously very emotional about the piece of me and my mother because it just brings back my memories of her and her lying on her side of the bed in the countryside house where we grew up, and the many moments I laid my head on her chest and she wrapped her arms around me with unconditional love, so you know I love that photograph but that’s probably more emotional, and I love the one of mum holding the frog as you enter the exhibition because it’s kind of this grotesque and extraordinary beauty all at the same time, there’s a contrast in that work, and the colouration is spectacular in the film, its very sort of extant in that respect. And then I love the shoes which is me and William Eggleston so I couldn’t answer! I love it all, I’m so proud of her and I think she’s the best photographer on earth today!”

-	Stella McCartney