Suspicious Minds

Suspicious Minds

This akward family photo breaks the norms of a family photo on many levels. The overall gesture of this photograph is extremely comedic. First off, this photo breaks the norms of a basic eye line. Most family photo's done in this fashion include all members of the photograph looking the same direction. Also, each family member has a different expression on their face. The father seems to be staring angrily at the camera in typical hard-edge father like figure. This attitude is excentuated by his domineering eyebrows and hands at his hips. As we move our eyes lower and to the left, we see the mother with a shocked look on her face. Her daughter sitting next to her is looking off screen and looks extremely annoyed. Something tells me that the daughter and the father of this family were perhaps at a disagreement with each other about how much fun they were having. The last person in this photo is the son of the family. His expression is completely different from the rest. He is looking slightly to the side of the camera, but close nonetheless. He appears to be the only one besides his father that the camera is there. He seems to be the only member actually looking at the photographer and making a photogenic face. Another factor that contributes to this photo's awkwardness is the selection of clothing. There does not appear to be any common dress or theme within the choice of clothes. The mother is wearing a light blue dress while her daughters patterned and full of warm colors. The father and son are wearing similar shits, but if you look closely, their ties are completely different colors. Lastly, the photographer themselves contributed to this awkwardness by placing the members of the family at a slight distance. Most of all, the picture itself is lined up poorly. Ideally, eye lines of the tallest member of the picture should be way higher in the picture. Instead, this photo has alot of extra gray space above the family photo. In summary, this photo has many visual clues that make this an akward photograph. It violates the norms by its dress, facial expression, eye lines, and even photograph skill. Although Im sure it would make a very interesting conversation piece above a living room couch.