My parents divorced when I was two years old. Photography wasn’t rare in the late 80s, but it surely was not as easy as pulling out a phone from your pocket. Due to the brief amount of my life that my parents were together, in combination with the fact that photography was not as accessible, I have made it to adulthood with only one physical family portrait of my parents, my brother, and me.
As you can see, the blond child completely steals the show in this family portrait. You can also take note of the classic backdrop, incredibly on trend 80s outfits, and the fact that everyone was directed to look just off camera.
I share this portrait to argue in favor of two concepts that I think people in all stages of life should consider:
The annual family portrait is critically important for documenting the years that move by so quickly.
Printing your portraits to display in your home should be a non-negotiable.
As you know from my story, you never know what changes may come in life. Of course most families won’t face life altering tragedies or divorces, but the reality is, your family as it is right now, will never be that way again. Dad’s facial hair will go through phases, mom’s hairstyle will vary year to year, and the kids will constantly change as their small bodies go through two decades of constant growth and hormone changes, drastically altering the way the look.
But just taking these pictures is not enough. Displaying them in your home is exceedingly important. For one, printed portraits can become heirlooms later. Additionally, when your children see your family together on a daily basis, regardless of where life takes them, they will internalize the truth that they are part of a unit; a group of people bound together until the end of their days. Finally, when decorating your home, printed portraits hold more meaning, purpose, and love than anything you can purchase at Hobby Lobby, or any work of art you can spend money on.
You may not have the budget to get portraits every year, but you have a phone that can take a pretty good picture, and you can order cheap prints almost anywhere, and find simple frames online and on clearance in many different places. The only excuse for not printing and displaying your portraits is laziness.
For me, the entire purpose of getting into photography was to document my family in a way that my childhood never was. We make an effort to take our pictures every October in preparation for Christmas card season, but then we always print and display our favorites. We don’t print them all, so here are some that might only live on digitally. -J
