It started off as a simple challenge for myself. Could I improve upon the cheesy, awful traditional school pictures of my daughter that are taken not once, but twice, each year since she started daycare and preschool? Truth be told, I’ve never purchased the school portraits that my daughter has been subjected to in the past. But I did enjoy looking at the proofs online, just for entertainment’s sake. The yucky blue backdrop. The blue cloth-covered cube that she’s seated next to. The elbows on the cube with hands clasped together under the chin (oh, you KNOW that pose I’m talking about!). The slight cock of her head. The suuuuper cheesy smile on her face. This is not my daughter.
School portraiture is not my usual genré. My ultimate goal in taking the job as school photographer this Fall was to capture authentic images of these kids. Who they really are, in the brief few moments I had with each of them. Photos that the parents would recognize. I wanted them to look at the photos and think, “That’s my daughter.”
I also wanted to put a modern spin on the typically oh-so-dated school picture. I wanted them to look modern but also be timeless. I wanted to capture photos that you would actually be happy about displaying in your home. I am pretty happy with what I was able to capture. I had so much fun with this project, and I think the parents were quite pleased as well.
What you see here is just a small sampling of images from parents who were kind enough to agree to share their child’s images with you. I didn’t pose them or ask them to say cheese, but rather conversed with each child and tried to draw out their unique personalities. Enjoy!
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