Negotiating the Family Portrait 2011 - 2021

This body of images is a distillation of my family portraits made over the last decade. Each of these sessions is a a call to action; a coming together to determine what is important or even necessary to record; a negotiation between fact and fiction. Each year the dynamics are different, but the process and results are no less enjoyable. A STUDY OF HISTORY, MYTH AND IDENTITY - It now seems to me that it would be a good title for all the portraits that I have made over the last 10 years, because it summarises how I think about the act and process of making and exhibiting family portraits. Each portrait benefits from a subtitle. I'm very aware of the discussion of private and public. About negotiating, those issues with my family members. We tread the fine lines of contributing to the dialogue of family portraiture as a genre. Revealing something candid but not uncensored. The camera is not the fly on the wall. There is a performative aspect and each person makes a contributing to the portrait and simultaneously existing in a private space but aware of being seen publicly. I love these collaborations with my family. We lead such disparate lives. I love these intersections which bring us together. I wish for my family members to be the actors in my images but wish that each photograph can hold a personal meaning for each of us.