My brother bought me an Olympus Trip camera for my 18th birthday back in the year dot. Ever since photos have been hugely important to me as a means of recording my life.
An essential element of that photographic diary is the annual family photo. I have a record of what our family has looked like for the last 30 years. The original has my parents, my brothers and me - just the five of us. At full strength now we can be fifteen plus. Of course we have a party at the same time. We eat, we drink, we catch up, we play games, we have a photo taken.
The latest snapshot taken yesterday has my siblings, nieces, nephew, my children, partners. We gather in a group and the self timer is pressed on the camera and I run into position. Been doing that at the annual family party now for nearly three decades. It's rather wonderful and poignant to look back on the early photos and see what we all looked like (was I really that thin) as well as taking a long reflective sigh on seeing the loved ones no longer here. I think my Dad loved being at the centre of the photo, head of the clan. My Mum is still on it in spirit. She won't leave the old people's home because of bad knees and we can't quite organise ourselves to gather altogether at the home for the photo. Don't worry she has a steady stream of relatives from morning to evening on the day of the family photo.
One year we tried to be a little different and take a panoramic shot of the family all lined up youngest (left) to oldest (right). I don't think the family members on the right liked being ...well...on the right so we now just gather into a group, all mixed up.
I am now quite obsessed with group photos. At a party, at Sunday lunch, at a play over, on a camping trip I gather everyone together for my photo record. It's tradition.
I could publish the family photo here but we are quite shy so you'll have to settle for a blog post about a photo without a photo.
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