Why I Choose to Be A Documentary Family Photographer
Real life is not always pretty but it is the most beautiful story we get to tell.
Now I know, when my kids ask me in the future — “what was grandma like when we were younger?”
I can pull up this very image and say to my kids: Let me tell you a story, a true story!
A lot of people have asked me — why documentary? How did you get started in this genre?
Today I want to share with you why I chose to be a documentary family photographer and this one is truly from my heart.
Some of you might have known that my little family were visiting my parents in Wuhan, yes the epicenter, when Covid started there in 2020. I went to China as a lifestyle photographer with a giant shot list hoping to capture all these amazing photos I had envisioned. I had high hopes that I would be able to come home with lots of instagram worthy, award winning lifestyle photos. However, everyone knows what happened next— or rather, what never happened. Yeah, all those photos.
We were stuck in the little apartment of my parents, the 7 of us at the time. Winter in Wuhan is always cold and gloomy. I was mad that we couldn’t do anything outside of the home and I lost my chance to boost my business and go viral with my curated images.
I committed to a 365 photography project and I promised myself to take at least one photo each day with my big girl camera of my life. I kept photographing, but I did not want to look at any of the images let alone editing any of them because I thought nothing was good enough. There was no golden hour light, no cute little kiddo visiting giant panda, no big joyful moments.
Then everything changed when we all a sudden got a notification that we would be evacuated out of China. After a very chaotic week of packing and unpacking and packing and unpacking again, we were on board of the plane to come back to the US. That is when I realized that I just lost the chance to take another photo of my life in Wuhan under that very special circumstance.
After we made it to our quarantine center, I started to look through all the photos I had taken in Wuhan of my family because I totally felt that these would be the only things to hold onto now. As a matter of fact, I still haven’t been able to go back to visit my family and I have lost family members to covid during the past 4 years. Then I landed on this photo:
Initially when I took this photo, I just felt that I was spoiled because my mom was cooking and usually I am the one cooking for my family. My mom cooked for the 7 of us three meals a day every day, a feast every meal. Then when we were facetiming with my parents, they started to tell me that they had to count how many eggs they eat each week and they are sleeping in to have brunch to avoid having to eat 3 meals a day to make their grocery last longer. That’s when I realized that my mom literally drained her food storage so that my family could have a somewhat normal Chinese new year celebration.
I don’t think with the Chinese culture, me and my mom ever said “I love you“ out aloud to each other. However, when I look at this photo, there is zero doubt that this is the most unconditional love shown in the most humble way.
This is the moment when I realized that my real life is more than good enough.
This is why I now really want to dedicate my time to documenting real life. I do believe that real life is not always pretty but it is the most story we get to tell. I want to honor my real life now and I want to pay tribute to the real life I ignored back when I was in Wuhan.
Let’s document your beautiful mess.
I’m currently booking documentary sessions in the Phoenix area as well as traveling sessions in the US. I’d love to tell your family’s true story.