We all have reasons why we want family photos taken.
Most of the time it’s milestones like weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs and similar events.
Occasionally it’s to celebrate daily life – that’s where Documentary Family Photography comes in. It documents family life in an honest, authentic, unscripted way to help your children see where they came from and parents freeze moments while their kids are growing (way too fast).
But have you ever thought about family photos as a conversation starter?
Why Family photos are great conversation starters
First of all, when you meet new people who happen to be a parent too, it’s easy to bond over your children’s age, hobbies, noise level… With our phones acting as a digital photo album, you can start a conversation and show evidence of your kid’s cuteness (or messiness).
But family photos can do so much more than help you connect with strangers.
They can help you connect with your own children.
Humans have been passing on information through stories for thousands of years. Those stories come to life through visualisation – and what better tool can you use than your own family photos?
Here are a few ways, photos can help you connect with your own family in a variety of ways:
1. Nostalgia and Shared Memories
Family photos are like a time machine. They transport us to a day in the past, rekindling memories. These images can connect generations, enabling grandparents recount their youth to their grandchildren, and parents sharing their own upbringing with their children.
Each photograph tells a different story, lets us revisit moments that have been long forgotten and pass on stories from a time long gone.
Sharing these memories can bring you closer as a family and strengthen the connection you have due to the understanding that these stories can bring. They let us pass down stories and experiences that define who we are and where we come from.
2. Growth and Milestones
Milestones are the things we most often remember to photograph. They show you how fast your kids grow, the big and little achievements, the life events we celebrate with them.
However, milestones look different for everyone and they change through generations. Photos of these moments are a chronicle of our lives, documenting the transformative moments we experience. These photos become a visual testament to our lives.
Displaying these images around your house, reminds us of the challenges we’ve overcome and the goals we’ve achieved. The conversations that unfold around these images give us the opportunity to share our wins, setbacks and dreams.
3. Culture and Generations
Photos help us capture family traditions – so we can remember them later in life and pass them on to future generations. They help us preserve customs, values and stories that define our family’s unique identity.
Looking through family albums or admiring a photo wall gallery, helps us create conversations around the experiences of different generations. They can be a catalyst for discussions around ancestral roots, cultural practices, and the evolution of our family’s traditions.
Traditions are very unique to every family but they also change throughout generations. If we have photographs to remember these rituals by, we can teach our children about cultural and generational differences raise them to be aware and curious rather than ignorant or fearful.
4. Communication and Storytelling
In the digital age, where our attention is focused on screens for most of the day, printed family photos act as tangible connectors between people.
Each photograph holds a story, waiting to be shared. A well-captured photo can spark conversations, raise questions and spike our curiosity. They help us ask about people, places and moments and are the ultimate storytelling cue.
We revisit people in images at a time that’s long gone, bring back memories and stories that have long been forgotten. We learn about adventures of someone who may no longer be with us.
Through storytelling prompted by family photos, we create an environment where listening and sharing become second nature, cultivating empathy and understanding among family members.
5. Emotions
Family photos have an incredible ability to capture not just moments, but the very essence of emotions. Candid shots, like those taken during a documentary family photo session, capture laughter, joy, surprise, and a whole load of other human expressions that define our relationships.
When we get together to relive these captured emotions by flicking through a photo album, shared experiences come alive. The genuine emotions caught in these photos serve as a reminder that life’s most precious moments are often found in the mundane of our daily lives.
The conversations that come from remembering the everyday that shaped our upbringing, can remind us of the bonds and connections between family members as well as friends.
Do you ever look back at images from your own past and instantly travel back to the day the photo was taken? Can you feel what you felt back then? Images have this incredible capability to do that.
Who hasn’t said the sentence “Do you remember when..” while looking at an old photo?! That’s the power of capturing a moment with a camera. The stories that follow can only be evoked by visual reminders like photos.
Family photos are a great way to help you share stories with your children. They help you see how much you and they have changed over the years.
Selecting and displaying family photos strategically around your house holds the key to unlocking their full potential as conversation starters. Specifically images taken through a documentary photo session, where genuine moments are being captured rather than perfected portraits are created, showcase a diverse range of moments, emotions, and milestones that reflect the essence of your family’s life. Those images will spark memories, prompt questions and invite conversations.
Imagine the stories you’ll be able to share with your children while looking through a photo album and standing in front of a wall of images that grows over the years.
Have a look at your own photo collection – not just from the year your children were born. Go back in time to your own childhood. Have a conversation with your parents and grandparents about their own memories while flicking through their albums and prints. What stories will you be able to collect and share?
Abd when you’re ready to add to your own photo collection, click below to have a chat about documenting your life now as keepsakes for your children in years to come.
