Originally intended as a statement against the idealised family album. The concept derived from the desire to do family portraiture without conforming with the ‘happy family’ aesthetic. The tights serve to distance, distort and discomfort familiar faces, replacing white shirts and smiles with stockings and a frown. ​The series has since evolved to also reflect on the ‘strangers’ in my family. The members which fall into a limbo between stranger and familiar. Whether its a third cousin twice removed, that weird uncle you met at a wedding once, or the members which live on in photographs.
Country
United Kingdom
City
Cheltenham
Bon Voyage
During our recent family trip to Morocco, I captured this thought-provoking photograph of my mother on the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. In this image, she boldly challenges the conventional ideals of family album photography by wearing stockings over her head.
The concept behind this photograph was born from my desire to break away from the expected 'happy family' aesthetic. The stockings, stretched across her face, create a striking distance, distortion, and discomfort, replacing the traditional white shirts and smiles with a provocative frown. This unconventional family portrait series has evolved to explore the idea of 'strangers' within the family – those who exist in a liminal space between familiarity and the unknown.
Through this image, I invite viewers to join me in contemplating the intricacies of family dynamics, acknowledging the third cousins twice removed, the enigmatic uncle encountered at a wedding, and those family members who live on in photographs. It challenges the conventional notions of familial happiness and prompts us to see our loved ones in a new light.
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Quote
"In this project, I redefine family portraits, using stockings to disrupt the familiar and explore the beauty in imperfection, where the strange meets the known." William Josephs Radford