Some places hold more than one childhood.
We joined Jess and her family at home in Falmouth on a September evening. Generations living alongside one another, doors open, everyone moving naturally between their spaces.
We’d photographed Jess during her pregnancy, so it was lovely to spend time with her again and meet more of the family. Being invited back is one of the real pleasures of this work: getting to know people beyond a single session and making photographs as their lives unfold.
The same garden, another childhood
Jess has lived here all her life. As we talked, she remembered playing in the front garden with her sister, climbing the trees and celebrating her fourth birthday with a bouncy castle.
Now her boys are growing up doing those same things, in that very same garden.
There’s something special about photographing a family somewhere already so layered with their history. Before we’ve even taken a photograph, there are stories everywhere. The trees someone climbed, the places they played, the familiar journey between one front door and another.
For Jess, these photographs bring together the home she grew up in and the family she is raising there now.
Making room for the whole family
With several generations together, there are so many relationships to notice. The whole family belongs in the photographs, but so do the smaller connections within it.
And, of course, the four-legged members of the family. Following everyone between houses, appearing in the middle of things and keeping a hopeful eye out for crumbs. Woven into the everyday, exactly where they belong.
Photographing at home lets those familiar rhythms become part of the session. There’s room for people to drift between spaces, for children to play and for the photographs to grow out of being together.
Coming back to a family’s story
Having already photographed Jess’s maternity session made this visit especially lovely. We were making another set of photographs for the same family, this time with a wider view of the people and place around them.
Over time, those collections become something you can look through together. Pregnancy, growing children, grandparents, the garden. Different moments in a family’s life, held alongside one another.
The people change, children grow, generations overlap, but home holds onto all of it.
Thinking about a family photoshoot in Cornwall?
Your family photographs can begin somewhere that already means something to you. That might be your home and garden, a favourite beach or a place you often walk together.
You’re welcome to include grandparents and the wider family, too. Tell us who you’d like to bring and a little about what you have in mind, and we’ll help plan a session that suits you.
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