generations

This is why I love portraits. I love seeing all the similarities and differences within a family. I love seeing marriage and romance spread throughout the generations. I love getting to be a witness to laughter and knowledge and how each family shows understanding and grace in their own beautiful way.

I can't wait for the day when Matthew and I get to stand with our family, with our children and grandchildren, showing them photographs from our youth and saying, one day, this will be you too, sharing and teaching, and learning from your loved ones.

Matt and I go back and forth sometimes as to whether or not we want children. I think that's normal for newlyweds. You get used to the way things are, and the idea of children, a huge responsibility coming into your life, will change things forever.  But when I'm around families with so many ages represented, it's a fascinating new thing for me. Maybe that's the only-child part of me talking, but I love seeing the playfulness among large families, and the dynamics, and the way they all gather around when there's a need, or a broken heart, or a joke that absolutely must be shared.

When I see these families unfold in all their messy glory, I fall in love with having that one day. I fall in love with showing my grandchildren my wedding photo, and with the way my child is a spitting image of Matthew, and the way we always insist on owning a little black dog.

It's these little insights among the generations I get to photograph that gently remind me we'll be there someday because there's not a bone in my body, or Matt's, that can't wait to share all that we are with the children we'll one day come to know.