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Strollerderby
A moment in time, preserved forever.
I’ve written before about how I’m not a fan of the family photo du jour that seems to be dominating the walls and hearts and minds of families across America.
You can read my rant – Just Your Average Family Hanging Around On A Sofa In The Orchard – about plush couches lugged out into random orchards and then sat upon by smiling families dressed in matching Anthropologie sweaters. But listen, if you’re averse to salty language you may just want to skip ahead to the most excellent slideshow featuring family photos from every decade in the 20th century.
I’ve been reading a lot of novels that take place in the thirties and forties. These fictional creations feature families, characters created so beautifully by authors that I was inspired to Google “family photos 1940′s” to get an idea of the type of folks about whom I was reading. The images my search procured are beyond cool. Unsmiling faces staring out into the camera, somber exteriors belying… well, belying what? Inner turmoil? Bad marriages? Economic strife? Who knows?
One thing is for sure, it’s fascinating to observe not only how wardrobes change throughout the decades, but also note how and where families pose for photos. From austere settings draped with dark cloths to lounging in front of the family car or perched on a couch in a living room or, yes, an orchard. The technological advances in photography and cameras also obviously play a large role in the types of photos produced.
Take a look:
Are you let down by a photo-less Christmas card?
I love Christmas and I enjoy getting glossy photos of my friends’ and family’s children, all dressed up in holiday splendor. I admire how they’ve grown and those cute little smiles. I also relish getting holiday cards with people’s pets dressed up since I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog that I haven’t found adorable.
But I don’t send out holiday photo cards myself.
Yes, I'm just as guilty of the awkward pet photo but damn, I loved that dog.
I’m a dog lover. I’ve pretty much owned a dog my entire life. Not the same dog, of course, but you know what I mean.
For most of my adult life I’ve owned Max. He’s a Black Labrador Retriever who is absolutely awesome with my kids. A few years ago Milo became a part of our family. He’s also a Black Lab Retriever who isn’t quite as careful around the kids. He’s full of love, just a little excitable.
I’ve taken thousands of photos of the dogs with the kids but never anything like what I’m seeing over on Awkward Family Pet Photos.
Okay, that’s a lie. I just remembered this photo shoot we surprised my mom with when I was 16 years old. That photo right up there is of me and my brothers and our beloved dog, Spliffy, who lived to the ripe age of 19. He just died last year. Yes, I had a small addiction to tanning beds. And shut up, matching denim totally rules. But listen, that photo is nothing compared to what you’re about to see.
Do you include your pet in family photos? Take a look at what some folks are hanging on the walls of the family room these days: Continue reading »
In German artist Paul Ripke’s photo series, kids are the parents and parents are the kids. The resulting effect—beards in onesies and pacifiers in business suits— is completely bizarre, slightly disturbing, and quite amusing.
Aside from being amazingly cool to look at, these images ask some bigger questions.In this child-centered age, parents are often judged for letting their lives revolve around their children.Where previous generations of children were given a finite place in a world defined by adults, this generation of kids is being raised in a world increasingly designed around kids’ needs, both physical and emotional. Whether or not this style of parenting benefits kids…or parents, is up for debate.
Ripke’s work seems to address this question, asking:
Just who is the parent here?
I'm fit and you're not?
Blame the hormones?
There has to be some explanation for this special subset of priceless collection of pictures over on Awkward Family Photos. These Awkward Pregnancy Photos are beyond awkward, they’re awful. But, I mean, go look at them anyway because they’re also hilarious.
Just like the site that birthed these babies, the photo captions are worth the click. (This blogger does a pretty great job with the commentary, too.)
They’re all good, but here’s a sample:
This used to be scandalous!
Part of the Hollywood starlet/super-model career trajectory is getting pregnant and posing in some state of undress. The latest naked mom-in-waiting is Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr. She even raises the bar in the December issue of W magazine by, as Salon’s Tracy Clark-Flory points out, forgoing the forearm draped over her chest. She’s letting it all hang out.
Clark-Flory gives a great historical sketch of naked pregnant women — or PILFs as Babble’s Rebecca calls the women over in Being Pregnant. Back when Demi Moore did it on the cover of Vanity Fair, we didn’t see nearly as much as we do of Kerr and yet the photos were simply scandalous. That was almost 20 years ago. American society has come pretty far in not just tolerating pregnant women but enjoying them, embracing them, making room for them in the world instead of asking them to step aside until that little condition is over and things can get back to normal.
Pregnancy is part of the new normal! Continue reading »
Should you think twice before uploading personal family photos?
A few days — or maybe it was weeks — after I gave birth to my son, I uploaded a bunch of digital images from the birth to one of those online photo printing companies and clicked “purchase.”
Since I don’t make it a habit of having babies with my pants on, there was plenty of nudity in the shots. I didn’t think anything of it until I told my husband, “don’t worry. I ordered the pictures,” and he responded, “you did what?!” Birth is a beautiful thing. I was still on the hormone high! I didn’t think twice about the law. (In fact, I’m not sure I know what laws on naked pics actually are.)
So I hunkered down and waited for the cops to arrive and take the kids away and put me in jail for indecency. They never did show up. But my worry wasn’t totally misplaced. Continue reading »
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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