Shutter Sisters

photographic memory

By

“Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love,
the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”
~ The Wonder Years

We flock like birds at the coast on a windy day. He runs from us with his balloon. This is real life. Laughter catches on the wind as we bend to collect seaglass. These are memories I don’t want to forget. We are younger than we seem when we gather at the beach.

I recently visited family over the Thanksgiving holiday. Home is faraway and appears on my horizon much too seldom these days. I shoot about a zillion photos over a span of five days, all in hopes to preserve the memory. As if I can freeze time and the moment and the energy of family right now as it is. I fill memory cards because it is through photography that I find what is real.

Now that I am back home, I keep returning to this image: our four bodies clustering like spirits. With magnets in us, we are magically drawn to one another. What is revealed through candid photography is the space between us, the love that lingers there, the laughter of a child bridging the generation gap, the newness hidden within what was old.

How do you shoot your family? Share with us your moments and memories of group togetherness captured through photography.

Comments

  7. I have trouble shooting people. I think because I have to step outside of that space between,
    to distance, to forget, to lose…myself
    (and god forbid I’m suddenly inattentive, or somehow unresponsive to what someone else needs! Is that it? I’m not sure)
    But a photo does come to mind, when you mention remembering. And it is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindwhisperings/4129735486/

    Thank you for this reflective post!

  19. We too were shivering on the beach — it was a cold gray Thanksgiving week here on Cape Cod, but we braved the elements and went out anyway. Here are my daughter and friend on the bluffs in Wellfleet:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyloomis/4138808120/

    After the Thanksgiving meal was cleared away, my brother sat down with my son and taught him the strategies of playing poker. I rarely get to photograph my son or my brother, so I love this shot of them deep in game-mode — and paying no attention to the camera:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyloomis/4138810018/

  20. I love the photo! It reminds me of the days when we are still complete in the family and we take a walk by the beach and talk about anything.

  21. oh, what wonderful photo! really!

    i took many family shots on thanksgiving, but did not get much i was happy with. but practice makes perfect, right?