H&G: The art of portraits
Think about why people love Facebook. It’s neither the status updates, nor the notes that really hook us. It’s not the overwhelming amount of applications or the “which fill-in-the-blank character are you?” quizzes. We love Facebook because we love stalking our friends’ pictures and leaving comments.
If we decorate our virtual home — and let’s face it, that’s what Facebook has become for even the best of us — with pictures that make us happy, why don’t we do so with our actual homes? As much as we all love prints of Anne Geddes babies, sunsets, Monet water lilies and landscapes, you have something much more unique you can frame for decoration: your family.
Photo by Dory Johnson.
“I find it really interesting that people have this bizarre twist on how they spend their money,” says Dory Johnson, a photographer in Boulder. “I see it in a number of ways. One, they’ll go and spend $3,000 dollars on a tiny little painting, but it’s a ‘masterpiece.’ Or, they’ll spend $3,000 on a bureau. Or, they’ll go get a poster, but they so often won’t often think of putting up large photographs of the family. A photograph always sets a tone. It says ‘home.’”
The expensive, adorned, art-museum frames may be unnecessary to surround these family portraits. Johnson suggests canvases as a high-quality and longer lasting alternative.
But go ahead and rattle your creative bones. Montage one of your living room walls with family portraits from throughout the past decades in colorful, unique frames. Transform portraits into oil-paintings that will last hundreds of years. Splurge for professionally assembled end-table photography books of the family that guests can flip through as they sit in the living room.
On a low budget?
Hang clipboards holding portraits, slide pictures under the glass of your coffee table for an assorted collage, or insert them in plastered self-made frames from painted, old-school popsicle sticks. At Mike’s Camera in Boulder, morph your family portrait into decorative boxes, cutting boards and decorative tiles.
For gifts for two of her friends, Johnson mounted photographs onto wooden, Mexican swinging doors and attached ropes to hang them high from the ceiling.
“You can get really creative hanging photographs that speak to something within you or of your family,” Johnson says.
Photo by Dory Johnson.
And why the emphasis on the professionally shot family portraits? Portraits should be more than a few clicks on the point-and-shoot camera, cheaply printed and stored in shoe-boxes.
“In the long run for families, when you get a portrait taken, you’re really making an heirloom that is going to last through generation after generation,” Johnson says. “How many of us have poured over pictures of our grandparents?”
We all say photographs capture moments, but really, they immortalize moments. Those pixelly, distorted, just off the family printer photographs are simply not eternal heirlooms.
What if your family is different?
To all the ladies not quite ready to settle down with babies and a hubby, grab your substitute family — your friends or your pet. Unconventional, perhaps. But, why not document yourself at this age and this time in your life? The real you with your real loves. Farfel’s Farm, 906 Pearl St., will gladly photograph you and your pooch’s portrait, as will most professionals. Mantelpiece-worthy, for sure.
“We often find that as families view their slide show of their pets, they cry,” says Sandy Calvin, co-owner of Farfel’s Farm. “They explain that it’s the emotion of looking in at the relationship they’ve never really witnessed — the pure love between them and their pet. Often, if we visit photo customer’s homes after photographs are hung, we are amazed that the pet images are more prominent and larger than non-pet photos.”
Though Facebook’s online home offers a nice forum for picture sharing and bragging, decorating your actual home with timeless family portraits guarantees to spark a comment or two from your friends — the non-virtual ones.
On the Web
Because photo mouse pads, mugs, T-shirts — even the occasional bedspread — quickly endanger the sophistication of your home, check out these Web sites for creative ways to decorate with photographs.
www.photowow.com — Create end-tables, pillows and handbags from digital pictures.
www.kimbrastudios.com — Craft your own lampshades, nightlights and wineglass charms.
www.personalizationmall.com — Fashion cookie jars, serving platters and tree ornaments with your family’s portraits.
Looking for your own portraits?
Here are some local photographers who can help you decorate your home with heirlooms of the people you love:
Dory Johnson’s Olac Photography: 303-449-4759, www.olacphoto.com.
Julie Afflerbaugh Photography: 303-704-9999, www.julieafflerbaugh.com.
Stone Crandall Photography: 303-506-9362, www.stonecrandall.com.
— By Caroline Seib
I just stumbled upon this … thank you all at womensmag.com for the connection! Great article.