Family Photography a Retrospective of My Own Work by Family Photographer Jennifer Lind Schutsky

The Narrative.

The Story behind our work.

What is the point of taking a photograph?

As a family photographer but more importantly a portrait photographer, I am constantly searching for the essence of the person and who they are on a soullular (cellular) level.

This piece (the collage) can be view chronologically or in reverse order. When all is assembled in the last image you can no longer see the previous layer. Similarly to how we stack memories one on top of the other. As we perceive more, we often forget past experiences, but thanks to photography those moments are captured and preserved and we are able to go back and see moments that have passed.

There is also an element of micro-dosing grief.

With images like this we look back on moments of our life and they will never be like this again. It’s sad that I will never hold my babies as babies ever again. I will never have a human building in my womb. There is a sadness and melancholy if we sit with that for too long, yet with images of the time, I’m able to remember what it looked and felt like.

The best part of this gathering of my work was to look at these images with my kids and get their input as well. They remembered certain outfits, places, and things from the images, even if they were too young in the images to actually know these things. Which also further illustrates how imagery shapes the future with it’s representation of the past.

This assignment forced me to visualize my personal photography in a retrospective of what was important to me then. What I noticed as a young woman and new mom. And it also shows me what I still value as a photographer now and how I capture images for my clients.

All images photographed by Jennifer Lind Schutsky with the exception of the wedding photograph in the last image. And all maternity photos by Brittany Lind as styled or directed by Jennifer Lind Schutsky. Black and White film photograph maternity photo in the second and third image with light painting exclusively by Brittany Lind.

As was presented on my Instagram, an alternative viewing order: my intention with presenting it this was is to disrupt the concept of linear time.

Scrolling right is a deconstructing of the collage // scrolling left is assembling the collage.

There is not a forward or backwards. There is past and future. There is the present moment and your memories within them.

If you zoom in you can read my captions with each layer of the project as it expands and contacts.

Thank you @anastasiapagonas for creating the @wearememorycult community to push my intentions a little bit deeper with each assignment.