Family Photography Now

Family Photography Now presents 40 international image-makers who have turned their lens on the complex dynamics of the family, whether their own or other people's. In these pages you will find Swedish stay-at-home dads and Congolese first-time mothers, families with same-sex parents and families with identical twins, blended families and extended families, portraits made via Skype and portraits of imaginary families. Sophisticated art projects appear alongside highly personal images, many never before published in book form.

From Magnum member Trent Parke's darkly amusing shots of life in suburban Australia and Denis Dailleux's portraits of Egyptian bodybuilders and their mothers to Elina Brotherus's devastating records of failed IVF and Nadia Sablin's elegy to her elderly aunts in rural Russia, this book takes readers on powerful journeys that are by turns moving, funny, thought-provoking and inspiring, encouraging us to reflect on how we photograph our own families.

Complete with profiles revealing each photographer's story and working methodology, and two essays analyzing the complications of family attachments and the ways in which these have been captured in photography of many genres and moods, this book will appeal to photographers both professional and amateur, and to anyone who has ever been intrigued by the dramas that are ordinarily played out behind closed doors.

“"[An] amazing book... Brilliantly selected, edited, and arranged, these exceptional photographs around a fascinating subject both universal and singularly personal will attract anyone who appreciates photography as art."”

'The images are thoughtful, disturbing, and funny in turn; there is a great variety of work to explore' - Royal Photographic Society Journal
'A thorough deconstruction of what family photos habitually are' - Telegraph
'Tackles the emotional rollercoaster of family life with the honesty it deserves' - Guardian
'All of family life is here - which means all of human life too' - New Statesman
'A journey through the modern world … every picture tells a thousand words about the way we live' - Motherland

Sophie Howarth is a writer, teacher, curator and entrepreneur based in London. Co-founder of the School of Life, she has also been Curator of Public Programmes at Tate Modern and an Associate Curator for Artangel.

Stephen McLaren is a photographer, writer and curator based in San Francisco.

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