Illuminations: Remembrance

When I think of family photography I think of those portraits that families get done at Wal*Mart for Christmas or for family portraits that will be displayed on a mantel. I can't remember the last time I saw a hard copy of a family photo album. Annette Kuhn did a beautiful job of explaining how photographs do more than just document a moment; they document entire stories, or days through memories. I think we all unknowingly do this when we take pictures of our family and friends. The photograph Kuhn writes about is of herself with a bird and as she points out the viewer can deduce many things from the picture but only she and her family know the whole story behind it and can be reminded of a memory about that day or things in the picture, from it. As Kuhn says, we can take a magnifying glass to that photo of her but without her telling the reader about it, we would never know. Kuhn points out that photographs of ourselves are not to show simply that we exist, but "how we once were." We always reminisce with photos about the past, and can literally see our past selves in them. The clothes we wore, how old we were, can all be seen in the photograph and also, the memory of who we were and what our lives were like at the time it was taken can come flooding back. I think family photography may not be something photographers think about often unless it's their profession/preferred subject matter. Again, it is so engrained in our culture that it has become natural for us to do. But it's important to note that photo albums, as Kuhn pointed out, area narrative of our lives essentially.