Family photography at the Jianguo Flower Market, Ximending, and other crowded places.

When most people think of an outdoor family photography session, they picture everyone sitting together at a nice park, or possibly holding hands and walking towards the photographer on a treelined walkway. I take these photos from time to time and there’s nothing wrong with them, but as a documentary photographer, I prefer to make photos that incorporate the environment into a larger story that says something about what your life is like right now.

This presents some challenges in Taiwan. The truth is, we’re living in a very crowded place and surrounded by scooters and other crap (in addition to lots of beauty as well). Can photos be both honest and beautiful, or do we always have to compromise on one side or the other? Should the crowds and scooters and occasional funeral processions with pole dancers be hidden, erased from the documentation of this time in your life?

I don’t just think we should photograph these things with our cell phones to share on social media, I actually think these parts of the environment can be incorporated into beautiful family photos that turn into family legends when everyone is talking about it at a holiday meal 20 years later. Here’s something you might not know about me: I spend a lot of time thinking about old age. Not in a practical way like planning for retirement, but in a more existential way. I’ve thought about what I would want to look back on when I’m 80 years old and it’s the photos that make me hear, taste, and even smell what my life was like during a particular place and time. Because I value the storytelling aspect of photography more than anything, these things are beautiful to me. It doesn’t feel like a compromise.

I love that clients who value similar things find their way to me—I end up working with some very adventurous people! Here are some photos from a recent documentary photography session that, over the span of two hours, covered: Daan Park, the Jianguao Flower Market, the Jianguo Jade Market, the MRT, and Ximending. These are storytelling photos that incorporate places in Taipei that are important to them, but they also can’t help but be beautiful family photos. Photos with a group of people who love each other always are.