Aimee McCrory: Roller Coaster. Scenes from a Marriage

Aimee McCrory: Roller Coaster. Scenes from a Marriage by Aline SmithsonJune 10, 2024

©Aimee McCrory, Flash, from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

The pulse of McCrory’s Roller Coaster courses through a multi-chambered heart. When I look at the photographs gathered here, there are a few striking elements that I want to draw attention to. Aimee has a strategic and physical process of working. She deals with contemporary cultural taboos around sex and older adults, highlighting our impermanence and the consequence of aging, sickness, and death. Finally, Aimee explores self-portraiture and flow state (or being in the zone) as pathways to self-realization. – From the text Tight Turns, Steep Slopes, and Inversions by Chehalis Deane Hegner

Photographer Aimee B. McCrory has released a new monograph, ROLLER COASTER/Scenes from a Marriage, published by Kehrer Verlag, that navigates the waters of love and aging, a subject rarely considered in the onslaught of sex and youth in the 21st century. It is a subject that is often considered taboo or “off the table” in discussions of sex and desire. I distinctly remember my own mother, excited about going on her first date after my father passed away and me, having to acknowledge her sexuality after years of thinking of her simply as Mom. Roller Coaster explores the unfamiliar visual terrain of love in the later years.

McCrory’s theater background allowed her to create a series of “scenes from a marriage” that speak to domesticity, aging, intimacy, and humor. Created in the pandemic, during a period where we were confined to home and experiencing a 24/7 relationship with our partners, children, or even pets, we began to see those under our own roofs anew. She collaborated with her husband of forty-two years to explore their relationship with honesty, curiosity, and playfulness…and new appreciation of a long time partner. McCrory’s goal as a photographer is to raise awareness regarding the joys and the challenges of growing old together.

“While fighting hard to hold onto life, love, sexuality, and physical bodies, the more meditative aspects of the narrative ask us if we are yet emotionally
and spiritually evolved enough to let go and be at peace with our impermanence.’

An interview with the artist follows.

©Aimee McCrory, Book Cover of Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

Aimee B. McCrory’s photography centers on self-portraits, feminist themes, aging, and complex family dynamics. Her current project, “ROLLER COASTER / Scenes from a Marriage,” forms the basis for her forthcoming monograph, in collaboration with the notable art publisher Kehrer Verlag, in Heidelberg, Germany.

Recent achievements include her recognition as a finalist in Photolucida’s Critical Mass 2023 competition, an Honorable Mention in the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards in July, and a similar mention in the 19th Annual Pollux Awards held in Barcelona in March. In May 2023, her work was featured at the Kolga Tbilisi Fotofest in Georgia, and she participated in The Houston Center of Photography’s 40th Annual Show in June 2023. In 2022, she received a Special Merit award from the Texas Photographic Society and secured second place in TPS’s New Visions 2022 competition. Aimee’s work has been showcased in several publications, including Huck Magazine in May.2023, Pictura Gallery’s blog in August 2023, Blind Magazine in November 2023 and the Texas Photographic Society’s Member News newsletter.

McCrory has been engaged in an intensive mentorship with Chehalis Hegner since 2020. She has also participated in two workshops with Keith Carter. From 2014 to 2021, she studied with Lynn Lane, the photographer for the Houston Grand Opera and the Alley Theater.

Her current affiliations include membership in Jane Alt’s critique group, enrollment in the Advanced Photo Workshop with Peter Brown at Rice University since 2021, and participation in an ongoing critique group led by Jason Langer.
Through her Photo Forum membership at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Houston, she maintains a vital relationship with the photographic arts community in Texas and beyond.

Born in Houston, Texas, Aimee McCrory remains rooted in her hometown.

Follow on Instagram: @mccroryae

©Aimee McCrory, Before the Eruption from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

Roller Coaster, Scenes from A Marriage

This body of work began during the pandemic when Don and I were forced to spend all of our time together. ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ draws upon my background in theater to create a pseudo-documentary version of our relationship. At our age, challenges arise out of simple everyday life. With intended honesty, intimacy, and humor, ‘Scenes From a Marriage’ expresses a variety of moments most long-term relationships face. In our culture, growing old is often accompanied by feelings of shame. Terms such as ‘losing your wits’, ‘becoming irrelevant’ and ‘being abandoned’ haunt older individuals. My goal as an artist is to raise awareness regarding the joys and challenges of growing old together.

Being the photographer, the director, and the actor in almost every scene, the logistics were complex to juggle. I manipulated our personal domestic circumstances just enough to heighten elements of mystery. Questions implied in the photographs can then be answered by the viewer. The array of responses may say more about the viewer’s domestic relationships than about the marriage between Don and me. In this sense, the work can be both a window and a mirror — Whatever is felt is not necessarily only about us but may also be about the viewer.

Interestingly, appropriating our marriage as subject matter serves as a “meta” experience for Don and I. The making of the work itself has become an integral part of our marriage. Thereby, it functions as an integral component in the drama. When I pull back my lens to “document” our life together, it becomes a mirror reflecting onto itself. In this sense, it strikes at the heart of photography.

©Aimee McCrory, Bickering from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

AS: Tell us about the landscape of your growing up and what brought you to photography.

AM: I grew up with a strong and frustrated 50’s housewife and a pioneering, somewhat emotionally distant father. Our household was chaotic. It was an emotionally charged backdrop. My mother was over-involved with her children. My father was preoccupied with building his business. Then, at the age of twenty-six, out of nowhere, I was delivered the shock of my life: On New Year’s Eve in 1978, my father was suddenly and brutally murdered.

©Aimee McCrory, Gasp from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

©Aimee McCrory, Day in the Country from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

AS: So much of your work has a physicality and performative quality to it. Obviously, you are comfortable being in front of the camera!…

AM: From my earliest memories, I wanted to be a performer. I always had a facility with my body and used it to tell my story. I didn’t always have the privilege of following my bliss because I had to make a living. Don and I shared in meeting our ﬁnancial responsibilities, and I was a career woman.

I joined the ﬁnancial service industry to help sustain our lifestyle.

During that time, a producer at a CBS afﬁliate in Houston, Texas, asked me to do a weekly ﬁnancial segment. I jumped at the chance to be on TV, thinking that the exposure would grow my business and at the same time appeal to my longing to perform. As it turns out, the audience was mostly my mother’s friends, and surprisingly, a fair number of inmates in the Houston County jail.

This stint did rekindle my passion for performing. I decided to enroll in acting classes. From there, I contracted with a talent agent and this led to a decade of auditions, performances, and a profound love for the theatre.

©Aimee McCrory, Getting Dressed from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

©Aimee McCrory, Bottoms Up from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

AS: Was the work for Roller Coaster completely staged, or did you ﬁnd moments that presented themselves to you and Don?

AM: Roller Coaster was almost entirely staged and was very much based on the truth of our relationship.

There were many moments that occurred spontaneously, however, most of the moments were staged. The collection of images was derived from a hybrid approach.

©Aimee McCrory, Guilty from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

AS: Was Don comfortable having your lives exposed in this way?

AM: In the beginning, I think he was reticent; however, as we moved forward, he became very comfortable in his role. As a matter of fact, now that series has been published he is enjoying his ‘15 minutes of fame’.

©Aimee McCrory, Martini Hour from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

AS: What I ﬁnd so interesting in your work is the sense of play. For many people, to see an older married couple being playful and connecting on a variety of levels, especially during covid, is a rarity. Do you make each other laugh? Did this bring you closer?

AM: We deﬁnitely have a lot of fun together. It is my nature to be silly and playful, while Don’s sense of humor tends to be more satirical and edgy. My willingness to be zany gives Don permission to do the same. Thank goodness I came up with this idea to document our marriage because it added a whole new dimension to our experience during Covid. Making this work gave us something fun to do together. In fact, the making of the work became an integral part of our marriage.

©Aimee McCrory, Surrender from Roller Coaster, Scenes from a Marriage published by Kehrer Verlag

AS: What did you learn about yourselves, that you weren’t expecting, when undertaking this project?

These images were so telling, like a mirror into our relationship. Some of what they reﬂected was somewhat disturbing. There was a certain tension present in some of the photographs. The stress of the pandemic had taken a toll on both of us, causing old patterns of behavior to resurface. In fact, sometimes the only intimacy we engaged in were the scenes I orchestrated for the camera.
Through a lot of self-reﬂection and tough conversations we have arrived at a much better place.

This project has added a new depth and dimension to our marriage, including a much greater comfort with intimacy.

In our seventies, this requires much more creativity than it did in our thirties, but let me tell you, it is worth it!

AS: What do you hope the reader will take away from this book?

Honestly, when I started this work there was no audience on my radar. I was simply exploring myself and my relationship with Don, within the context of a pandemic. Once the project was done, it became clear that a book was the perfect format in which to share it. My hope is that people will see themselves in my work and be inspired to assess their own lives, and put their energies toward doing whatever it is that gives them meaning.

AS: What is inspiring you lately?

Good question. I have a voracious appetite for learning and honing my craft. I am always exploring new ways to express myself within this medium.

As for new projects, I have a few on my plate. One that I have begun to explore is the deep wound my siblings and I suffered when my father was tragically taken from us at such a tender time in our lives.

I have begun to revisit the incident and examine the ways in which we healed. My journey will begin
with me and my siblings. Potentially, it could include others outside my family that have had similar experiences. I hope to have the personal strength to bring increased awareness to violence of this magnitude.

Whatever form my work takes I will continue to speak my truth.