Legacy pictures: Re-creating the past

Have you seen some of those photos on social media, where people have attempted to re-create favorite childhood family photos many years later?  They are always good for a laugh, especially when the baby of the family is now six feet tall. But apart from the laughs, what they show is change-and also continuity. When the pose is the same, it's easy to see how the subjects have changed and grown.   I have two pictures of my daughter's children, taken 5 years apart, in the same pose. In the first, taken in 2012, the youngest is a baby and the middle child still in diapers. I have plans to take another one soon, but it is much harder to get them all together these days! I call these "Legacy Photos" and there is more than one way to leave a legacy!

There are those photographs of successive generations in the same location. My family has deep connections to the Isle of Wight, in southern England. My maternal grandparents lived in the little village of Carisbrook, which boasts a genuine castle (a bit bashed about, to be sure) and all of my generation and later had our photos taken at the castle, on the steps of the Norman Keep. I recently posted the one of my children on Facebook as a "Throw back" picture and it prompted my cousins and second cousins to share theirs. Living thousands of miles from Carisbrook castle, it's unlikely my grandchildren will carry on the tradition but, you never know.  Do you have a place that means a lot to your family? Sometimes we don't realize we are starting a tradition until we look through old photographs and realize how many are taken in our favorite place!

Maybe it's a piece of clothing that links the decades. I once photographed a wedding where the bride wore her mother's wedding dress. It's a popular trend in recent years. I suppose it depends on when your mother got married-dresses from the late 80s-early 90s, with their puffy sleeves and voluminous skirts still look dated. I still have my dress from 1977 (empire waist and bishop sleeves-look it up!) and I seriously doubt my granddaughters would want to wear it. I know my daughter didn't.  I did persuade my granddaughter to put on an old dress of mine recently and I took photos of her in it. I wore it in 1972 and, being made of genuine, 100% polyester, it is still in really good shape. When I posted the pictures on Facebook, the comments went something like this:  "Your granddaughter looks beautiful but, oh, wow! What a dress!!!"

I've mentioned before that children benefit from seeing family pictures on the wall; it helps them understand their place in the family and in the larger world. Legacy photographs are one more way to bring the past to life and link it to the present. If you want to re-create a family classic, or start a new tradition, get in touch!  I'll be more than happy to help!!