Generations of Women

Because many of the handsome family portraits in this album of mothers and daughters are set against a velvety black background, the women jump out at the viewer with almost nothing to distract the eye. Some of the photos are arresting-Whoopi Goldberg en famille, for example--and others more plebian, but it's a pleasure to trace the generations through similarities to the eyes or hands, or, in the case of adopted children, a certain stance. Jamaica Kincaid contributes a dark and incantatory opening essay. "I have a mother, and I know her now and she had a mother; her mother is now dead," she writes. "...I knew that woman, my mother's mother; I know her more deeply and more fully than if I had spent every day of my childhood life with her." Brief paragraphs from each of the other women photographed point up the complex connection between mothers and daughters. What makes these texts particularly piquant is the words women choose to define their relationships when only a few are allowed. --Francesca Coltrera