Recently there have appeared several reports of picosecond absorption studies for the photodissociation of triarylmethanes(1,2,3). This class of molecules is of interest as photoexcitation leads to the formation of ion pairs, the kinetics of which are highly solvent dependent. The 300 nm photolysis of malachite green leucocyanide (MGCN) results in the formation of malachite green cation (MG+) whose appearance, when monitored at 610 nm, is non-exponential. In order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the molecular events that give rise to this behavior we have examined the picosecond absorption kinetics of a series of TAMs.