Personal Photography: Family Connection

 

As photography was introduced, it began to be seen as a replacement for paintings as representations of people. With photography, a more literal and detailed image of the person is created. Paintings were interpretations of the subject illustrated by the artist while the photograph captured the true likeness of a person. So, with this new means of illustration, people began to use photograph as a means of portraiture. They donned their best clothes and had photographs taken. Thus, they tried to represent themselves at their best and make themselves appear upper class and wealthy. This alludes to the fact that paintings cost a lot of money and it was typically the upper-class of society who obtained them. In these images, they posed in positions alluding to their wealth and power with lavish clothes and jewels, and in dominant postures. So, in photographs, people began to copy this idea and posed to make themselves seem wealthy and powerful. Many of early photographs often look like they copy the painting. In fact, artists like Frank Holland Day and Frank Eugene used photography to replicate popular artwork. 

In my project, I used family photographs. I looked at how even over a span of more than 20 years, photographs are composed similarly. I saw that in family photos similarities could be found. So, just like photography replicated paintings, and Eugene and Day mimicked art, I saw how over the years, similarities arose in portraiture. Furthermore, I investigated the similarities between family members in their facial appearances. This is reminiscent of the scientific approach to photography where they saw common features between people. However, unlike physiognomy, the subject’s character was not analyzed. In this project, family photographs were matched based on similar composition and facial similarities.

I looked through old family photos to find similar photos. I searched out pairs of photos-one older and one more recent-that exhibited similar composition and similarities in the subjects photographed. Then, I juxtaposed them together within one image to show the similarities between the two images. The dates underneath the images illustrate the difference in time while the names reveal the different identities.

This idea was interesting to me because in my family there are strong family resemblances on both sides of the family tree. It seems that in some cases it even passes generations and into extended family. So, I thought that it would be interesting to find photographs that were very similar, so much so that it might seem like they were the same people or the same situation, but in a different time. I found this to be so much fun. It was interesting just to look through photographs of everyone all through the years, but even more rewarding to find the familial connections between people.