Family Photos

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Julie, those snaps of <em>Blonde with Rifles and Javelina</em>, and <em>Grandma with Cow's Butt</em> are exactly the types of snapshots I've tried to mimic. My granddad was a master of that style, and many of his photos include his thumb or forefinger - he had enormous hands that could wrap around any camera smaller than a Pentax 67.</p>

<p>That primitive style with a grotesquely humorous flair is damnably difficult to do for the experienced photographer - any training in the "rules of good photography" tend to interfere. We've assimilated guidelines for composition and timing so thoroughly it's instinctive, even intuitive. We would need to unlearn years of training. I've tried no-look snapshots, just extending my arm without looking at the rear LCD, but it's still difficult to reproduce the style of the untrained snapshooter. I can't turn off my sense of timing, which often is the main difference between good snapshots that were well considered by an experienced photographer, and good snapshots that were pure luck.</p>

[didereaux]

<p>My 10year old grandson with his new camera we gave him for xmas. A Fuji S4800(?) if I remember right. ;) He took some remarkably well composed shots that day. Just him and me, and the woods...doesn't get much better.<br>

<img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3710/14308626574_6912cb256f_z.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" /></p>

[Brad_]

>>> I'd love to see your family photos even though it's kind of unfair for me to ask since I won't show you

mine.

 

Julie, why is it you won't show yours? It does seem unfair, or at least a little odd asking everyone to post

photos and stories at your request, while at the same time refusing to share yours.

[Spearhead]

<p>I agree with Brad, post yours.</p>

<p>Here's one that I didn't pose but somehow was a moment that wouldn't happen if I was sitting back waiting, with my wife and son. It's a while ago, he's 22 now.</p>

<center><img src="http://spirer.com/images/zandt.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></center>

[sjmurray]

<p>Family, friends, living rooms, backyard barbeques, weddings, etc, have been my main source of inspiration for the last 40 plus years. To me its part documentary, part art, part portrait. I don't do "street." Instead, I see the family, friends, and neighbors as a great a source of material as any.</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Uncle Basil</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Peter, my brother</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Dad, unposed</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Jennifer, my daughter, graduation photo</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Whitney</p><div></div>

[sjmurray]

<p>Olive Street Gang</p>

[sjmurray]

<p>Oops, try again:</p><div></div>

[saintelmo21]

<p>My family photos are not really any different than the rest of my photos in that they are all just for fun (pleasure and enjoyment of creating something).<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/10844690-md.jpg" alt="" width="679" height="651" /></p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/6131554-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="598" /></p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Sometimes a simple family snap does manage to capture a special moment, or even the essence of a person. Here is one of Betty made in 1977, holding Anne, who is now the mother of my grandchildren (whose photos are posted above).</p>

<p>--Lannie</p><div></div>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>This one captures the personality of my mother, seen here talking with her brother (and my uncle) at her ninetieth birthday party.</p>

<p>She was quite a wit and kept cracking jokes almost to the moment that she died almost two years later. I hope that my mind holds up as well as I age.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p><div></div>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Here is my older daughter, who not only has the features that I had when I was younger, but who also has much the same temperament.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p><div></div>

[Julie H]

<p>The posted photos are just outstanding, IMO, in showing the spectrum, the range of this kind of picture. I am <em>crazy </em>(just <em>fantastic</em>!) about some of them, not so much others (I dare not say which because this is such a quirky kind of preference). What I will do is give examples from "outside" with remarks; you will probably be able to suss out, from this, what makes me crazy. First, (looking specifically at Lex, see his last comment), here are some "true" snapshots:</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/snapshot_childmaskhat.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> just kills me -- because of the child's left hand and the dark/black socks. Don't ask me why ...</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/snapshot_familyhouse.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> is, to me, incredibly poignant. Again, don't ask me why ...</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/snapshot_eyesclose.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> ... I love it. Terrible, terrible picture, but it's just so immediate. Joy in a piece of paper.</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/snapshot_kittentable.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> has 'I-love-you' radiating into and out of it. (Yes, cat's are <em>definitely</em> part of the family.)</p>

<p>******************</p>

<p>For me, family pictures shouldn't be or seem to be or show signs of intentional/constructed meaning. It just kills the family feel for me. Examples to illustrate from the Friedlander book referenced in the OP:</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/friedlander_newborncar.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> is a <em>great</em> art picture ... and, to me, a <em>terrible</em> family photo. There is something horribly cold about a father being detached enough to make a photo that uses all kinds of outside ingredients -- while using his wife and newborn child as part of it.</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/friedlander_airport.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> feels the same way for me, though, it's such a great (art) picture ... he's even worked the dynamics within the family to make the whole work as a composition with the foreign ingredients of the airport. But, again, as a family photo, I find that kind of detachment/using kind of creepy.</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/friedlander_graduation.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong> shades more to a middle ground. Once again, he's obviously composing with outside stuff (he's so darn good, he can't help himself ...). But in this case, the "intended meaning" seems to me to be *about* the graduating daughter, so therefore, it's ... better (more "family").</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/friedlander_kiss.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong>, I love. Yes, he's *still* composing (see how the surrounding parts work together, and those wrinkles with button on that shirt; just gorgeous) -- but they seem to me to be emotionally congruent with the mother/son.</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/friedlander_leelightpole.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong>, I <em>really</em> love. Look for Lee (Friedlander) "hiding" behind a very skinny light pole ... This seems very father-son having a great time horsing around. For once, he's let go of the compulsion to always be seeing composition before emotion.</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/friedlander_3erikreflect.jpg">THIS ONE</a></strong>, so much like the last, yet this is totally not a family photo. It's a great art photo -- the tripling of Erik (his son), but the compositional urge has eaten the boy.</p>

<p>***********************<br /> .<br /> <img src="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/me_oldphoto.jpg" alt="" width="393" height="484" /><br /> — <em>me, by my Mom</em><br /> .</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<blockquote>

<p>a <em>great</em> art picture ... and, to me, a <em>terrible</em> family photo.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, there can be tension. Sometimes art has to be sacrificed to something warmer and more spontaneous. Art can be so terribly self-conscious.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[AlanKlein]

<p>When we look a pictures of people we love, we fall in love all over again.</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<blockquote>

<p>It's a great art photo -- the tripling of Erik (his son), but the compositional urge has eaten the boy --Julie H.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>The "compositional urge"--perhaps it is a compulsion. People with the "eye" have it. Sometimes it is better to have the heart than the eye, if one must choose.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Pets are family, too. Here I am with Honey in late November, 1977. Since this is not art, I'm not sure what to call it. It was a self-portrait done with the camera sitting on a rock. I guess that it is a snap of sorts. Honey would live fifteen more years.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[GerrySiegel]

I think the categories of posed, staged, unstaged categories are a taxonomy that is overly rigid. Can we not get a "staged" ( move to make the light do its thing and see moment about to happen) and seem natural for the person. Art of the family photo if you like. We all catch a few. Staging pet animals, now that is an Art.....<div></div>

[MichaelChang]

<p>A couple of pictures dad took of mom, his favorite model, and a self-timer shot with my parents and yours truly. </p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17778294-lg.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="476" /><br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17778293-lg.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="479" /><br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/15956454-lg.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="480" /></p>

[AlanKlein]

<p>Lannie: Cute dog. It really is bad when you lose a pet. Our mini-poodle Buddy died 18 months ago after living 14 1/2 years. He was a constant hiking companion with me which I thought was really neat considering his spiffy look. This timer activated shot too was taken as a <em>selfie</em> with the camera on a rock or log. Well, I cropped it and probably straightened it out a little too.</p><div></div>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Great shots, Michael and Alan. </p>

<p>Alan, that is one cute shot. Yes, that is a rather spiffy-looking hiking companion.</p>

<p>Julie, thank you for coming across. . . with a baby picture. We're going to organize a search party to find out what you really look like.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>