Mom's boy and her toyboys

Leigh Ledare's mother was naked when she opened the front door for him.

She was expecting him, but when he walked past the bedroom, the photographer told The Guardian, "a young man, almost exactly my age, was sprawled out naked. He rolled over to see me, saying hello, before rolling back over and returning to sleep.

"I had a camera and began making photos of her then."

He believed this was her intention.

So began a strange project that culminated in an exhibition, and then a book, Pretend You're Actually Alive.

Some of the pictures are disturbingly pornographic. Others, like the one on the left, aren't. There is a tenderness in the portrayal of their relationship. It is a fascinating project, but its merit is lost in the disturbing transgression of mores. We're accustomed to over- sharing, but is it okay to take photos of your mother having sex? Is this a graphic quest for notoriety? Or am I not accepting the complexity of our lives and relationships?

One explanation for Ledare's project is that his mother is battling with ageing, and her way of processing the inevitability of losing her appeal is to get her son to capture her sexual interaction with young men. Everybody battles with ageing, but hopefully we'll reach a state of grace before we're photographed having sex by our sons.