The Smith Family, FIFE 1989 Scotland

The Smith Family is one of an ongoing series of domestic group portrait photographs that Thomas Struth began in the mid 1980's. Struth who gained recognition for his work with black and white photographs started making group portraits in color. He lived with families while traveling the world and at the end of his stay he would take a group photo for remembrance. He would let the families position themselves and to look directly at the camera. I previously chose a portrait by Thomas Struth and wanted to look up his other work and came across this particular portrait. I chose it because the family is all sitting together some are sitting some standing. They all seem very composed and their faces are somewhat mask like as they look at the camera. Struth remains a respectful distance from the family and he does not offer a portrait of psychological depth but rather concentrates on appearance.