Until the brother-in-law flips, maybe the booze, no one really knew.
A tragic event that bounded everyone present including me, the photographer. Consequently, the commonality of experience between me and the family gave rise to portraits like this one of the godfather.
I didn't create this portrait. The circumstances did.
I also didn't create the portrait below which was taken when the christening was still an innocent gathering.
One of her nine year old cousins took this photo - I set up and then held the camera (a 2kg beast) but that was it - so the image is about the relationship of two girls who have known each other for a lifetime.
To sum up, most images I take at family gatherings are superficial (how can they be anything else when I know nothing of the subjects) but occasionally they have meaning. To minimise superficiality, I avoid direct portraiture and focus on the relationships between key players at the family gathering, whether it be a wedding, a christening or a funeral. Possibly my greatest insight as a photographer is to understand portraits have true beauty when they reveal character and only rarely can my relationship with the sitter be of sufficient depth to bring character to the surface.
