Family Ties
Three generations of one family photographed at home over a single Sunday, in the rooms where they actually spend their time.
The Okonjo family asked for portraits and then, once we started talking, asked for something better: a day in the house their grandmother has lived in for fifty-one years, before it is sold. Nine people, four hours, and no studio anywhere in it.
We photographed cooking, arguing about a card game, and a long quiet stretch on the back step, and made the formal group portrait last, once everyone had stopped noticing the camera.
Nine subjects across three generations in a house with small rooms and low ceilings, two children under six who were not going to cooperate with anything, and one afternoon in which to do all of it.
We worked with the windows and one bounced source small enough to move between rooms in seconds, so the setup never became an event. The children were photographed first, while their attention lasted, and the formal portrait works because it is the last frame of a long day rather than the reason for one.
