The term “picture perfect” is becoming less relevant these days.
Last week I was in Dallas on a work trip and the week before that I was northern California on vacation spending a lot of time with my wife’s side of the family, which explains the extremely low number of posts for the last couple of weeks. (I’m not the kind of guy who announces “I’m on vacation on the other side of the country!” as my facebook status- I don’t think it’s a good idea to announce to the world when I’m not at home. Maybe that’s just me.) While in Sacramento, I saw a studio portrait of my wife’s family, circa 1985. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best, wearing big smiles (for the most part), all looking at the photographer (for the most part), and best of all, a fake forest backdrop was used as the background.
Granted, this was the mid ‘80’s, so anything that happened during that time was bound to be excessively cheesy compared to now. But here’s the thing- even today, many professional family portraits are still, at best, hokey. Because they represent a family at a perceived idea of their best, not what is normal or natural. In the past decade as reality shows have begun dominated prime time, sitcoms have become more sophisticated and life-like; by being more satirical and less slapstick, and also by removing the laugh tracks. Yet it can be a difficult thing to make studio family portraits less fake and more real.
And that’s why I’m a snapshot kind of guy.
Just as every family has a “family tree enthusiast”, every family also has a default photographer- and in some family circles, I’m it. I always have my camera with me anywhere I go, ready to snap some shots of whatever unique, random, or funny situation I find family or friends in. That means that a lot of times, not everyone is looking at the camera. But a snapshot can often tell such an interesting story- even if the picture isn’t “picture perfect”.
I am so into snapshots, that it’s part of the name of this website. Last week in Dallas, I met a person who after I told them the name of Scenic Route Snapshots, said to me, “I get it”. I thought that was pretty cool, since a lot of people when they hear the name and try to repeat it, ask me, “Seen a cloudy slapshot?” But in case it needs explanation, the concept of my site is that I tend to write about things that most people wouldn’t think to question on their own. I take an alternative, more laid-back approach to things (the scenic route) and take plenty of snapshots to remember them by (memoirs and journal entries).
But do professional photographers exist that take family portraits that don’t run the danger of being as corny as the opening theme song montage of Full House? Is it possible for a family in the 2010’s to have a portrait made which represents them in a realistic and relevant way? Yes, I’m seeing more and more begin to pop up- often following the “on locale and in character” formula of high school senior portraits and engagement photos, by placing the family in an environment which is familiar and natural for them.
When I think of a professional photographer who perfectly captures the realness and believability of snapshots in his professional work, I think of “Photo Joe” Hendricks who I’ve been friends with since I first moved to Nashville five years ago. As I was trying to conjure an image of what the modern family portrait should look like, I immediately thought of his work, which I’ve included in this post as examples (minus the one at the very top of my wife’s family in 1985). These pictures are the equivalent of a sitcom without laugh tracks- more sophisticated, more natural, and more original.
Blog- www.photojoeblog.com
Website- www.joehendricks.com