Why Family Life photography?

Probably the photography work closest to our hearts is our “Family Life” concept that we have been developing over the last 18 months or so. I’d like to talk a little about why we have chosen to move in this direction and why we feel it is so important and meaningful.

When we as people really think about what is the most valuable time in our family lives, often we might initially think “holidays!”, time away from work or just relaxing. But if we really look deeply into what the feeling is behind those things, it is almost always because we do those things with the people we love most, our immediate family members. Holidays are special because there is nobody and no situation that needs to draw you away from those people for the week or two or three that we might have “away”. We sometimes overlook the most obvious time, and I think the most important of all: the day-to-day lives of family units. This is the glue that binds everything together; the threads of meaning and belonging that weave our sense of wellbeing, purpose, and bring the most lasting joy to ourselves and our loved ones. And of course, the vast majority of this happens in the home.

At home we also have all the things – mementos, gifts and cards, the washing drying on clothes-horses or radiators, our own beds, photograph albums – that make the house a home and the central point of our family lives. Everything happens there! From cooking and cleaning to loving embraces, game-playing, potty-training, tantrums and laughter.

There are so many photographers who do an excellent job of photographing families, but 99% of the time these photos are taken in a relatively alien environment away from the home. If we think about it, so much of what we call “ourselves” exists as much as anything else in our environment; so if you take the family out of the environment, you aren’t really capturing the whole picture.

Another really important point is that while one family-member can photograph the others, there is practically no opportunity for the family to see itself as a whole – the whole dynamic of the family-unit. And of course these photos are usually posed: “Say cheese!”… which is certainly a lovely way of producing a certain kind of memento, but is completely other to what we achieve with our work.

What happens

On the day of the photography, we arrive at your house at the agreed time. We will have asked you when is a good time to come based on when you think you will be doing things together which you really enjoy or you would especially like to be captured. There is no posing here!

We simply ask that you continue with your normal pattern for the day, while we interfere as little as possible, simply observing and intuitively photographing. Cooking, eating, playing with the children, playing games together, reading; whatever you normally do, just do it. We will be there to get those special moments.

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We are extremely excited about developing this work further. We enjoy nothing more in our work than to see the connections between people, and we find that nowhere is this more apparent or more touching than in the case of a loving family in its own environment.

To enquire further about Family Life photography, please contact us at gwynne.gibbons@gmail.com, or send us a message at our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/gwynne.gibbons.artists