Multigenerational Photo Session
Tell your kids’ whole story with a multigenerational family photo session
Do you have any photos of yourself as a child with your parents and grandparents?
It’s All in the Family (photos)
When I was growing up, my father was into photography big-time. He was a creative guy, and worked for a famous Madison Avenue advertising agency. The film he took at home was often packed into his briefcase and brought into the office where the art department would get it developed.During the week he’d treat it just like any other project: mark the ones you like, get prints made at various sizes, and eventually frame the few you got just right. No thought of a “family photo session”, or getting the extended family in photos, he was just doing what he loved.
Where’s MY story?
That’s why I’ve recently been spending a lot of my free time taking a trip down memory lane in a room sorting through boxes and boxes of slides and negatives. Not exactly a party, but it’s made me realized a few things.
- First, I am totally sick and tired of looking at photos of my older sister and brother. Yep, I’m the third kid. The lost child. Maybe 10% of all of the photos have me in them, and those that do usually have the other two also. Family drama!
- Next, couldn’t he have handed the camera to someone else just a couple of times to get in a picture with his kids? Maybe think of hiring a professional photographer? Okay, there are definitely some control issues there, and being his kid, I can relate to that…
- And last, I would love to see some photos with my grandparents. They were there. But where were they? Not in the photos. I remember eating dinner with them, swinging on the swing set, sitting on their laps. But strangely, they’re absent from the narrative my father has created with his photos. (Well, there are some Christmas photos, but those seem more mandatory.)
It’s hard to think into the future while your everyday life is so frantic. I get it. My dad worked hard, photographed what he loved (my siblings…Grrr!) without a thought as to how the photos would be see in the future. That it would mean a lot to those left behind to have the full story. The whole family, the interactions, the sibling dynamics.
This extended family got together to tell this baby’s story in photos.
Tell the Whole Story (with photos)
As annoying as most self-help articles are these days, there is one phrase that sticks with me: Be kind to your future self. Meaning, in most cases, treat yourself kindly now, and you’ll reap the rewards later. I like to think of it a little differently: Be kind to your future family.
Tell their story now, including everyone who is part of it. The grandmas, the aunties, the brother who’s dying for more attention. Tell them how much you loved them. And, of course, save those future family member some time and aggravation and get those photos printed!
Give your future family the gift of photos. It will never stop giving.
