Argumentative Essay: Gender Roles In Family Photography

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Introduction
In this essays we will be examining a quote stated by Judith Williamson and its relevance to family photography throughout history. We will discuss Gender roles in family photography, the family album as a book, adjusting photos in a family album, how albums hide more than they reveal and how this theory has influenced my project.

Gender Roles in family Photography
Throughout the history of family photography there has always been specific gender roles. The Man would typically take photographs of the family and the Woman would be in charge of the family album. Williamson’s quote about the importance of who takes the photos (Williamson, 1984: 122) ties in here. The Woman decides which photographs are kept. As Judith Williamson states ‘family life is the …show more content…

Family collection are never just memories.’ (Holland, 1991: 1) Holland is saying that though the image themselves portrait the family as having a happy, socially acceptable image, however this does not mean that is the truth. That is why she ascribes the tag of ‘deceptive innocence’ to the pictures. The album tells a story in the same way as a book. It simply substitutes the words with photographs. The family album has the most in common with fictional books. This is because the world, facts and opinions within a book can be altered to provide a completely different context. In an Album the order, timing and contents of the pictures are manipulated to control the meaning of the album. This ties into the act of discarding, which was mentioned in Williamson’s quote. Holland proceeds to state ‘Each new generation brings new perspectives, new understanding and new forgetting.’ (Holland, 1991: 1) Holland shows us that family albums can be altered to provide different perspectives and this reinforces the false narrative produced in family

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