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Sunday, September 21, 2008
Torturing, oh I mean, capturing our family circa 2008
Do you find it hard to take family portraits? Do you go to a studio or shoot it yourself at home? What are your favorite shots of your family or from your childhood?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We are supposed to have our family portrait made this weekend for the church directory, and I am dreading it.
While I love the concept of the formal family portrait and love seeing families captured in time — their fashions, their haircuts, and sometimes even their missing teeth, it’s just not always easy accomplish with multiple children.
Somehow my grandmother managed to do it with six small boys, but the last two times I have taken my three children to a studio for pictures things got downright ugly.
My oldest had to be taken to the bathroom multiple times to be disciplined. The baby didn’t want to separate from me so she pretty much cried the entire time, which does not make for precious pictures. My son was just generally mischievous throughout the photographs resulting in adorable, yet not grandmother-approved, kooky smiles in many of the shots.
Despite living in the age of digital photography where almost anyone, with enough patience, can take a successful family picture, I still feel the need to torture myself and my children at a portrait studio at least once a year.
I guess it’s because we always had them taken when we were little. I’m pretty sure my mother kept the Olan Mills on Memorial Drive in business throughout the ’70s and ’80s.
My favorite family photo was taken when I was about 5. My dad has on a blue leisure suit with a thick striped tie. My brother also is wearing a leisure suit — peach according to my mother. He was about 8 and his hair was homage to John-John Kennedy of course. My mom had on a peach “knit” blouse. I’m pretty sure that would just be called polyester now. She also had a slightly curly version of a Dorothy Hamill haircut. I looked the most normal of the bunch — pale pink Easter dress, short curly hair with bangs.
Another favorite is our misguided church directory photo from the late ’80s in which my mother worked a little too hard to coordinate our clothes. We were all in blue so we look like one giant blob with four heads popping out.
I was encouraged a few weeks ago at the grocery store when I flipped through the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt family portraits in People magazine. This magazine paid $14 million for photos that looked just as harried and disorganized as my own. One of the older boys didn’t have a shirt on and was lying down so his upper torso was completely hidden in the photo. Kids were looking the wrong way and not smiling in most of the shots. Heck, Angelina didn’t even make it out of her nightgown for the photos. Apparently I’m not the only one having a hard time getting my kids to cooperate.
But I realized looking at them that the Jolie-Pitt photos were great because that’s how families really look and act. (In contrast, the Jennifer Lopez shots with her twins were so staged and so ridiculously uptight they didn’t look natural at all.)
The best photos we have of our family were taken at home like the Jolie-Pitt’s. (Although they didn’t cost $14 million.) Walsh was 3 months old and Rose was 2. The photographer stayed with us for about two hours just shooting the kids in their natural habitat. He got us in our favorite rocking chair. He shot Rose in her red toddler bed. He shot the baby rolling around on his blanket on the floor and lifting his neck. I love these photos because they are beautiful, but also natural.
With this new insight, I am just gong to try to relax and not mind if my daughter’s hair is disheveled or if my son gives a goofy grin. For better or worse, that is our family circa 2008.
You can reach Theresa at ajcmomania@gmail.com. Column and blog ideas are welcome!
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