I’m not sure at what point you stop calling your parents’ house “home” (even when you haven’t lived there in over 7 years), but whatever it is, I’m not there yet. However, since I moved out, every time I go home it looks a bit different; new wall colors, new kitchen backsplash, new living room furniture. The interior of the house looks almost nothing like it used to.

Yet, for as long as I can remember - before we moved in 15 years ago, my grandparents lived there - the outside has remained essentially the same. Until this year, that is. This year, to fill his time previously spent coaching, Dad decided his new full-tilt project would be gardening, beautifying every bit of the landscape of our yard. At first we teased him, the idea of my “swole” and intimidating father, who can bench press 300 or something pounds, gardening is rather humorous. This was a great reminder never to put people in boxes, and Dad’s always been full of surprises - not to mention interested in art. In addition to really accentuating the charm of the house, Dad’s gardening came in handy because his biggest surprise of all this year was his gift to mom of a family photoshoot, with him in it! It pays to have a photographer in the family, I suppose.

Mom was, of course, thrilled because we haven’t had a photo of the four of us taken in years, not even on a phone much less a DSLR. So we immediately got to planning. For my grandparents’ album commemorating their 20-something years working at Elkmont campground, Mom and I had gone through old photo albums choosing some of our favorite Elkmont memories to pair with their 2017 counterparts, so Mom’s first question about her own album was whether she could do the same thing. Uh, duh! This shoot was obviously very personal to me as I was not only photographing the people I’ve known the longest, but including myself in the images as well, so it was really fascinating to plan the shoot around these old images, seeing my own growth and that of our family through these contrasts of old and new.

As quite a few of our old film photos were snapshots taken as we went about our daily lives, I spent my first evening back home just sneaking around the house trying to take ninja candids. It wasn’t until yesterday as I was planning my social media for the week that I came across an old 35mm project I did in college, doing this exact same thing. I’d shot several rolls of black and white images around my parents’ and grandparents’ houses with the goal to capture each family members’ personality through environmental portraiture. In essence, I wanted to capture them doing their mundane daily tasks, going about their routines in the places they spent their most time, working off of the assumption that through time and repetition they’d created spaces which conveyed their characteristics through decorative choices, lighting preferences and clutter (or lack thereof.) I have always been fascinated with people’s chosen environments, which is why my style of portraiture often uses whatever local architecture or nature is there in order to frame my subjects. But it wasn’t until looking through that school project, and subsequently reflecting on this summer’s family shoot, that I finally understood the importance of environment: it’s often just as telling of someone’s identity and personality. And, in a project dedicated to conveying my family’s story, showing true character was paramount.

And so it was that we decided to do most of our shoot at home. Since most of the time we’ve spent together all four of us was at this house, it made perfect sense. Plus, our landscaper had done a great job!

None of us are particularly big fans of having our photo made, so I honestly wasn’t sure how the shoot would go. As it turned out, it was quite fun! We had the added amusement of me having to run into the frame - I had a remote to click the shutter, but obviously needed to compose and focus each portrait. Well, and the remote only worked if you pointed it directly at the camera so that took some additional maneuvering. But, even without these slapstick hilarities, we were all in stitches laughing at (with?) each other as much as ourselves. Awkwardness turned into nervous giggles turned into chortling turned into belly laughs. As laughter is my favorite emotion to photograph, I was perfectly happy with this, especially because this shoot was as much about the experience of enjoying a few hours together without outside interruptions as it was about the finished product.

We did want to do a few more “conventional” family photos, in a beautiful scenic field with the mountain sunset as a backdrop. So, we changed into our third outfits and headed to The Summit. One of Mom’s biggest concerns about having her photo made was not having anything to wear, so we spent a couple hours beforehand going through her closet choosing outfits for her and then building the rest of the family’s outfits around hers. With the vividly-colored backdrop, we opted for our own brilliant hues for the last location.

Per usual, we didn’t stay serious for very long. Actually, we were only serious when we did our traditional gameface portrait. But that’s right on par with our personalities. At first, I’d been worried that directing my family would be weird, but since my style is primarily just watching the moments unfold as my subjects interact, I just kept the conversation going and kept clicking away. We finished for the day right as the sun set, creating some really beautiful summer light to cap off our enjoyable evening.

Our family album wouldn’t be complete without the grandparents, MomMom and DadDad, Mopsie and Popsie. Because they lived only as far as 15 minutes away from wherever I lived for my first 18 years, they played a very prominent role in my life. So, on our way to dinner we stopped by each house to say hello and snap a couple photos.

I’ve heard that you photographed most often what you’re most scared to lose. I think that’s mostly true, but I’d like to flip the narrative and propose that you photograph most often what you love most. And if my continuous photographing of love, of family, and of my loving family is any indication, I think it is easy to see what I love most.