What Documentary Photographers Do With Their Family Photos

It can feel tricky sometimes to know what exactly you should do with your storytelling family pictures once you've received the digital files from your photographer. To help, I asked some family photojournalists from around the world to tell us,

What do you do with your own documentary family photos?

KYM VITAR | LOS ANGELES FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

Sadly, I wish I was better about displaying my favorites, but I’m not. I do have app albums on my phone, which keep my favorite photos right on my phone (a great feature through my website that all my clients receive as well), but I’m horrible about printing and mounting images. I have a gallery wall in my office, a few albums from certain trips, and that’s it! I have “plans” to print seasonal albums, but haven’t had the time to do so, so those images are saved on my computer waiting for my love and attention!  

MINNA RIDDERSTOLPE |  STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

I develop the photos, like in the old times, and just stick them into albums. I try to do that every third month. But after a busy summer season I am way behind.

I have always loved looking trough albums from my own childhood. Not just looking at myself and my family, but also at the environment, for example our house. When I look in these old albums today I am looking at the furniture, the wallpapers and the things scattered all over the house and these things evokes memories from so many different stories of my life. Just seeing an old lamp, make me think about that time when it fell over and hit my sister in the head… even if the photo itself did not revile any of that story. So now, when I develop photos for my own albums it is important not to just print the pretty pictures, I also print the more poor ones, but that shows more of our house or the place were we were when I took the photo.

JULIA ERZ | GERMANY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

Since my first son was born in 2013, I am doing family albums. Each week gets one page spread. I write about our events in the week, quotes from my kids and of course I put a lot of photos in.

Ordinary photos from little moments, they are equally important like birthdays, weddings, etc.

It is very hard and takes a lot of endurance BUT it is worth all the time and all the work! When I hold the brand new family album in my hands, I forget the strong doubt about finishing the family albums.

Julia's photo books.

BURCU CETIN | ANKARA, TURKEY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

I print my Instagram photos throughout the year as square prints from a local printing company and display them on our walls. I also prefer to make hardcover photo books per year although I'm far behind on making them.

NATASHA KELLY | MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

I'm just as bad as everyone else, in that I have thousands of photos that live online.Like everyone else, I'm pressed for time and life gets in the way!

I have the best of intentions to print books and frame prints, but to be honest, that is still on my 'to do' list! I do have a bunch of large prints that I had lying around for ages, hoping to find the time and money to get them framed. In the end, I just stuck them on the wall with blu-tack! My goal is to print more of my work!

CELINA BAILEY | MONTREAL FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

We have a couple of frames around the house with some photos, nothing too big. I would like to get one big print for the kitchen/ dining area but I haven’t decided which photo yet. I do love making photo books and usually make one from our holidays or yearly book for each kid. With all the photos I take, I need tog get into the habit of doing this more often. I also really like getting small books with all the Instagram photos. My kids look through those the most. And I got these cards from Artifact Uprising a while ago and they are favorite. The kids always look at then and play with them. I just love it when they reminisce and go down memory lane. I really need to print more and more often, they always bring so much joy when we look through them. 

Celina's photo cards from Artifact Uprising.

LIA EDWARDS | MUNICH FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

My own documentary family photos are to be found all around our home.

I print the ones from my DSLR and display them in frames on picture ledges in our hallway - it's a constantly evolving display as my daughter grows - and a talking point for visitors when they walk in. I also take a lot of pictures of our family life using my iPhone, I select my favorites and order square prints of these from Artifact Uprising. They get stuck up on the wall in my daughter's room. I want her to be surrounded by pictures showing that she is part of an extended network of family and friends and loved by many. I try to get in as many of the pictures myself as I want her to see all the fun we have together. I've also started making little slideshows as a way to share some of our life with friends and family via social media. Finally, I am making yearly albums of my favorite pictures of our family life... although I'm a little behind on that project!