“The practice of family photography is vast and sprawling, and there’s no one way to approach any aspect of it,” the photographer Michael Johnston writes. Still, there are some helpful tips to keep in mind.
Years ago, when I worked as a photographer doing mostly portraits, a gracious and vivacious Virginian named Sally commissioned a portrait of herself, her three beautiful adult daughters, and her new son-in-law, a pleasant young businessman named Ted. When we met for our session, the weather was dull, and the mood in the room was subdued. Ted stood in the middle, flanked by his new wife and mother-in-law, smiling confidently.
Portraits of more than one person imply relationships, and so the meanings of our family pictures shift as families age, change, and regenerate. Recently, I came across a portrait of one of my cousins, made when she was young. It was taken long ago, at a lake house that was in our family for a century but isn’t anymore. A much beloved but long-gone dog is sitting at her feet. Kneeling by the pair, however, is her ex-husband, and, as a result, my cousin hasn’t used or shared the picture in years.
The South African photographer Lebohang Kganye came up with an ingenious way to acknowledge this process. After her mother’s death,in her prime; in a closet, she also found many of her mother’s memorable outfits. So Kganye photographed herself dressed as her mother, and digitally added her image to the old pictures. The result is haunting—it’s the deceased mother who appears more solid and present, and the living daughter who looks ghostly and transparent.
It’s often said that good photographs should “stand alone” and “speak for themselves.” But this isn’t always true, and, in fact, the truth is more like the opposite. Most photographs you come across have stories—you just don’t know them. I actually believe that the more that’s known about what a photograph shows, the more likely it is to survive. Don’t be shy about trying to record what you know about a picture, and about finding some way of keeping the picture together with its story.
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