By Daisy Abreu My family members and I posing for a Quinceañera picture What I remember most about my fifteenth birthday, mis quinces is that it was an extended family affair. My parents hosted the party at El Club Camajuani, the social club located in Union City, New Jersey, and named for my mother’s Cuban hometown, […]
My Father’s Fifty Years in Photos
By Mary Geraci 50 years worth of my father’s photography. When my father passed away in 2008, I was left with an entire bookcase of slide boxes filled with fifty years of my father’s photography work. My father with his camera around his neck. He is in NYC as a young man. My father began […]
How 100 Individuals Discovered They Were Family
by Julian Michelucci 80 members of the Lenci, Lotti and Michelucci family. The Lenci, Lotti, and Michelucci families immigrated from Lucca, Italy to Northern California in the late nineteenth century. Initially, they settled in what is now Pacifica, then San Pedro Valley, where they worked in the vegetable farms that carpeted this area. In time, […]
From These Roots: A Journey from Poverty in 1930s Philadelphia to Civil Rights Legacy in 1960s Los Angeles
The story below has been shared with Family Pictures USA by Bill Doggett about the path his parents took to resist the unjust practices of a pre-Civil Rights era America in southern California. “It is often said in ancestral black family circles, that ‘God does not bring us this far to leave us.’”– Frances Clarke Doggett Filmmaker Bill […]
Family Pictures in Brazil
Thomas and Ana Flávia in front of the library on the Federal University of Brasilia Campus Last month I went to Brazil to keynote the opening of the “Plural Knowledge: The Social Relevance of the Public University” Conference at the Federal University of Brasilia, as well as to conduct a two day Family Pictures Community […]
Growing up in the Ten Thousand Islands
By Barbara Tyner Hall Florida’s southwestern coast is made up of a group of mangrove keys known as the Ten Thousand Islands. Chokoloskee Island and Everglades City are located eighty miles west of Miami just off of the Tamiami Trail This is the western gateway to the Everglades National Park. Chokoloskee is one of the […]
Giving Thanks For The Power of Community Kinship
Written by Darriel McBride With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s an opportunity for us to not only be thankful for the food we eat, but our families as we celebrate with one another. Growing up on a farm, in North Carolina, has taught the Starling family the importance of knowing exactly where their food […]
One Man’s Impact on Four Generations
Written by Darriel McBride Every year, International Men’s Day is commemorated on November 19th to celebrate the positive that value men bring to the world, their families, and their communities. One of our very own Family Pictures USA participants, Leonardo Gonzalez, is quite literally the embodiment of a man who has brought significant positivity and […]
NOTABLE VETERANS OF 2019
Written by Darriel McBride Today, according to the most recent statistics from the US Census, there are roughly 20.4 million veterans in the United States, yet among those who have served, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 40,056 veterans are homeless on any given night. Gulf War veterans face unrelenting barriers […]
6 HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS FOR FAMILIES THIS SPOOKY SEASON
Written for Family Pictures USA by Darriel McBride Halloween is perhaps a child’s second favorite holiday next to Christmas. Although, some would argue that you can’t eat your toys, so where’s the fun in that? Growing up, Halloween was like no other holiday. My mother allowed my siblings and I to stay up late after […]
FRIENDS ARE FAMILY TOO
Written by Darriel McBride for Family Pictures USA Despite the fact that we may love our families, there are things each of us carry in our hearts that may be difficult to share with our loved ones. For LGBT+ folks, opening up to family about their sexuality can be the most difficult thing to share. […]
A Boston-Edison Tale
65 Years, 4 Generations, 1 Home By Michelle May Historic Boston-Edison is a 36-block neighborhood area of Detroit containing approximately 900 houses. The District is bordered by Boston Boulevard on the North, Edison Avenue on the South, Woodward Avenue on the east and Linwood on the West. It is one of the largest residential historic districts […]
I Didn’t know my Great Aunt was Queer
Viktor holds a photo of his family. During his time as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College – back in 2016 – Thomas had the opportunity to meet artist Viktor Witkowski and professor Katie Hornstein over dinner. Both brought family photos to share that night for an impromptu photo share session. Katie had a print […]
A CHERISHED BOND BETWEEN SIBLINGS
Written by Darriel McBride for Family Pictures USA For many members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community, National Coming Out Day is the perfect time to celebrate their own stories while raising awareness about the LGBTQ+ experience. Proclaiming one’s identity is a deeply personal and often challenging experience for LGBTQ+ individuals. Regardless […]
Chief of the Red Caps: James H. Williams and The Making Of A Harlem Community Hero
By Eric K. Washington James H. Williams, Otto Sarony Studio, ca. 1905. Courtesy Charles Ford Williams Family Archives “At the Grand Central station is a colored man who probably knows more people than any other Negro in New York,” a front page lede in the New York Age read in 1923. “He is Chief James H. Williams, head of the […]
Family Memories in Your Home Movies
There truly is nothing like reliving memories from the past and old home movies is one of the best ways to do that. They contain priceless footage of moments in our lives, laughs of lost loved ones, and family history worth preserving for future generations. No matter how long it has been, rewinding a tape […]
Scanning Tips and Tricks
In this day and age with the advancements in technology, there’s no good excuse for poor image quality. With smartphones and digital cameras, low resolution is a thing of the past. So, it’s always a shame when a project with scanned images is blurry or pixelated. But rest assured, I will show you the ropes […]
Family photos can fight the climate crisis
By John D. Sutter There’s a simple problem at the heart of the climate crisis: We don’t live long enough to really feel it. Academics call this “generational amnesia” or “shifting baseline syndrome.” The Earth operates on a timeframe of centuries and millennia. We humans are here for just a few decades. That makes it […]
Photo Day Series
By Evan Trine I’ve been working on this body of work for the last year or so. It developed slowly after stripping down previous bodies of work until I realized that the source imagery I’d been using was actually the most interesting, valuable part of my process. I haven’t completely landed on the language around […]
Saving Childhood Memories
Glitter, glitz, and not so glam…it’s all fun and games until your children bring home their treasures and masterpieces and your house transforms from a clean, comfortable sanctuary into an overwhelming, messy studio art gallery. Of course, their works of art are precious and priceless. Their hand-prints and drawings with “You are the best Mommy […]
