Family Albums: A Practical Analysis Essay -- essays research papers

Since their institution in the 1860s, family albums have played an important role as the promoters of familial ideology and treasures of familial memory. Most family photograph albums in containing a large variety of items, both identified and unidentified, from different periods and of varying quality, held together by their collective identity with the family (Schoeman, 1996 8). The function of familial photography is to fix information and memory, represent a method of preserving memories, document important moments and confirm kindly relationships and fact of belonging (Tobiassen, 1990). When photographs be stored in albums the process resembles the writing of family accounting (Tobiassen, 1990), and are thus a resource constituting an important mnemonic serve in the construction of a family narrative, although Tobiassen omits any thought that the photograph album is probably the closest that most families will ever approach to narrativising and transmittance their indiv idual and collective familial experiences for later generations. Early portrait photographers accented the importance of the photograph as a moral stabilizer for families and the hearty fabric, " family photographs sustained sentimental ties in a nation of migrants." (Alan Sekula, 1986) These sentimental ties, specially those produced by viewing photographs of deceased loved ones, enabled families to document their lives as they happened, and to flirt with those who had predeceased them, thus forming a seemingly cohesive " archives" on which to score a nation. Therefore, family photographs coffin nail be considered cultural artifacts since they document the events that shape families lives and so the recording of family history becomes an important endeavor. In many cases, photographs are the scarcely biographical material people leave behind after they travel (Boerdam, Martinius, 1980). However, the impact of family photo albums extends beyond merely recordi ng history. Interpretation of family structures, relationships and self-importance is possible through viewing family photographs.Interpretation of meaning behind photographs assumes that they are a means of communication (Entin, 1979). Much like family storytelling, photographs indicate relationships at heart and among the family. The family photo album is indeed an easy way to initiate outsiders to family history (Boerdam, Martinius, 1980)... ...separations and sibling rivalries needs to be studied. Historical documents, such as family photographs, can provide essential background information as well as indicate important people and relationships within a story.ReferencesAlan Sekula, "The Body and the Archive," 3-64, October, 39, Winter, 1986, p. 8.Boerdam, Jaap and Warna Oosterbaan Martinius. (October, 1980). "Family Photographs - A Sociological Approach," The Netherlands ledger of Sociology, v16, n2, pp. 95-119.Halle, David. (Summer, 1991). "Displaying the Dream The Visual Presentation of Family and Self in the Modern American Household," Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 22 pp. 217-229.Merz, Caroline. (August, 1988). "Smile, please," New solon & Society, v1, n10, p. 42.Tobiassen, Anna Helene (1990) Private Photographic Collections as an Ethnological Source. Ethnologia Europaea 20.1. 81-94.Titus, Sandra L. (August, 1976). "Family Photographs and Transition to Parenthood," Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38 525-530.Trend, David. (February, 1992). "Look whos talking Narratives of Family Representations," Afterimage, v19, n7, p.8.