Kicking off the new year with a travel documentary family photography session!
I love noticing and making art out of the rhythms of home life because “home” is a story we all know and are shaped by, so I’m as surprised as anybody by how much I love documenting these adventures that families go on when they come to Taiwan. There’s still so much to notice—relationships, touches, glances, rolled eyes, actions and reactions, exhaustion, wonder. People are who they are even when they’re not in their usual environment. If home is a story that’s more about the characters than the setting, then it’s a story that can be told anywhere.
Taking Pictures of My Own Life is Hard
I guess I should offer some concrete advice. Here are my recommendations for making photos of your own life (cell phones work great!)
Documenting Baby Teeth Smiles
I’m no longer interested in using my photography to make a grand statement about who I am as an artist. I find more artistic fulfillment when the photos are less about me and more about stories about families—family bonds, family sagas, family lore. This is a more universal conversation about themes that are greater than me. This is a deeper pool for me to swim in.
Family photography at the Jianguo Flower Market, Ximending, and other crowded places.
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.
Birth Photography at Loving Care Birth Center in New Taipei City
The moment your child enters your life and takes their first breath is life-altering—it will never happen again. Blink your eyes once and your baby has already changed at an alarming rate (or so it seems). I remember very little from my own two births and would give anything to have more than just one grainy cell phone image of me meeting my son for the first time.
Moments worth documenting happen everywhere—even FamilyMart.
I often joke over the fact that so many of the families I work with include a trip to the neighborhood FamilyMart or 7-11 in their session time. I seriously could make a book with these convenience store photos at this point, which tells me that there’s something important going on here. I think the neighborhood convenience stores are embedded in our family routine now. When we look back on these photos, we remember hot summers in Taiwan, the smell of tea eggs, and picking out our favorite ice cream from the freezer in the back. We think of the way our kids skipped down the street thinking of the treat that was waiting for them, and then the sticky popsicle kiss that we got afterward. These are the gems.
A Documentary Family Photography Session at the Taipei Zoo
I photograph a lot of beautiful, unforgettable moments, but I don’t shy away from the tears and the hard work of parenting. The stories worth remembering and passing on are the ones that are whole, with all the juicy bits included.
A Mother-Daughter Documentary Family Photography Session in Taipei
I consider it a special honor to photograph single parents living out this mission. Most of them are insanely busy with having to work and be the sole caretaker of their child; there usually isn’t another adult around to take photos of them with their kid. I want to make sure that they have some photos to look back on with them in the picture. I want them to see how hard they work, how much they love and are loved.
A Year of Documentary Family Photography in Taipei
I’ve been documenting the lives of families—of all shapes and sizes—in Taipei for about a year now. I had no idea when I started if anyone would be interested in letting me hang out and be a photojournalist for their family for several hours, and to be honest, documentary family photography still isn’t all that popular in Taiwan. But as far as the families who understand the storytelling power of documentary photography and want it, working with them is a privilege. It feels as if they’re taking a chance and letting me see their whole heart.
Taking My Time with Family Photography
I love to see how defenses fall and behavior becomes more uninhibited the more time I spend with a family. There’s a good chance a child will end up jumping on the bed naked, and yes, I will photograph it for you.
A documentary family photography session at Dihua Street in Taipei.
When we make photos to remember and cherish our lives as they are now with the people we love, we slow time just a tiny bit by weighing it down with our attention. This is a scientific fact, I’m sure.