Cathie & Anthony’s family

It’s like a blind date when I arrive at a session to photograph a family I have never met before. I showed up to this session & then realised that since I have no idea what they look like, all I could do was just stand there hoping they would recognise me because I am the one standing on the street holding a camera… & feeling silly that I said ‘meet me near the café’s’… possibly a bit too general when I don’t know who I am meeting. We planned the session for a location close to home for this family. The interesting part for me was that although it is not near home for me these days, it is the place that was home when I was born. So I was waiting for them to ‘find me’ & I stood there looking around at the park & the beach where all my own baby photos were taken (the faded square ones with round corners from 1978). A good point of inspiration to begin this session with a feeling of nostalgia, which was about celebrating a family who have already been on a journey together, a family with a story that has been unfolding since Cathie & Anthony were married 32 years ago. They have 4 children, one of which was headed o/s soon after our session, so this was an opportunity for them to all be in the same place together for the last time in a little while. I felt it would be good to let this session become a kind of memory for them, so after the session, as the sun went down they poured some bubbles into glasses & celebrated the moment. What I saw in this family was that sense that even as a family reaches the stage where home is not just one place for all & the younger members are venturing out to find their own way in life, there is something so good about knowing there are a few people in the world who are more like home than anyone else…

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