Family stuff (4 images)

michswiss

I feel like I'm taking a chance sharing these (as if that's different than any other time). Here are a few from the memorial week for my dad. Some still to process once I get the libraries recombined. I took off the hat of being a photographer most of the time, instead being the daughter. So not a huge set to draw from, nor much of the extended family. I'm not asking for critique, I know these images could be better. Rather, I'm sharing them to encourage observation and archiving family histories from within.

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bdcolen

Two three, and to some extent four, stand on their own, without the back story. One may need that explanation of what was happening, but I'm not really sure yet. But what none of them need is any sort of 'apology' or rationalization. They are interesting, intense images. I know that there is a strongly held belief by some on this list that to be worthwhile a photo should be taken of strangers, in public, and preferably be somehow gritty. As you know, I could not more strongly disagree with that point of view, and believe that family photos - of anyone's family - can be as compelling, and in many cases more meaningful, than "street" photos. Family is what we all share; it's what we come from; it's what we form over the course of our lives - in one form or another; and it's what we leave behind. Our own families, everyone's families, are the sources of some of the world's most fascinating stories, and of terrific images. Weddings, funerals, baptisms, birthday parties, fights, tv watching, beer drinking on the front lawn; all offer potentially compelling images. If well consider, exposed, and framed, a personal image can be just as good, just a worthwhile photographically, as any image from a documentary project. After all, what is an award winning project about life in Afghanistan, or the inner city, but a project about families in settings foreign to most viewers?