Look through your own family archive and try to discover a series of portraits (four or five) that have existed within this archive, but have never been placed together before. The portraits can contain individuals or even couples; they may span generations, or just be of the same person throughout the years (chronotype). Whichever way you wish to tackle this exercise, there must be a reason or justification for your choices. What message are you trying to get across about these portraits?
The four photographs I have chosen are all of my maternal grandfather and span a period of roughly thirty years from the mid 1960s. My reason for choosing them is that I think they show elements of his character and his realtionships with members of the family.
The first image is of my grandfather and my mother on her wedding day. My mother was the eldest of my grandfather’s two daughters and this was oviously a very special day. Both my mother and grandfather are smiling and seem genuinely happy, if my grandmother had been in the picture I’m not sure she would have been smiling as she did not approve of my father. My grandfather on the other hand did get on with my father and would have been happy if my mother was.
The second image is of my grandfather playing with me as toddler and so would have been taken around 1966 – 67. The picture was probably taken in Northern Ireland where I was born and where my grandparents lived. Until I look through our family archive, or more accuately a couple of boxes filled with old photographs, albums and negatives, I had not seen this photo. When I was a young child my mother was very close to her mother and my grandfather’s role was somewhat subordinate to my grandmother as far as grandchildren were concerned, so a photograph of him alone playing with me was not something I expected to find. It appears as if he has managed to have some ‘unsupervised’ time with me and is thoroughly enjoying himself, more than I was by the looks of it.
The third image shows my grandfather and grandmother and I think communicates a great deal about their marriage. The first thing that signifies something about their relationship is the distance between them, they are not close. The second point is their expressions, my grandfather smiling and looking relaxed with his shirt sleeves rolled up. My grandmother by contrast looks as if she is trying to force a smile but ends up with something closer to a frown. As children we were not aware of the state of their marriage, although the fact that when they came to visit in the summer holidays my grandfather would stay for a couple of weeks and my grandmother would stay for up to a couple of months was probably a clue. As we grew up it was difficult to understand why they ever got married and it was only recently that I learned that their marriage was one of neccessity.
The final image shows my youngest brother shaving my grandfather. My youngest brother had a closer relattionship with my grandfather than myself or my other brother and sister. This was partly due to their characters, my youngest brother is very like my mother who in turn was very like her father. It was also due to my brother studying in Northern Ireland for a time and being able to spend time with my grandfather. I think this photograph gives an indication of their closeness and my grandfather’s smile signifies how he enjoyed my brother’s company.
I think the four images I have selected show both something about my grandfather’s character and his relationships. In all the photographs he is smiling and this shows his warmth and his sociability, he enjoyed being with people and got on with them. In the pictures of him with his duaghter and his grandchildren the is physical contact which signifies a closeness between him and the other person in the photograph, however, in the photograph of him with his wife there is a distance between them. The distance between them is both physical and metaphorical: this and the difference in their expressions points to a strained and difficult relationship.
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