As a family portrait photographer, my desire is to fill my client’s homes with beautiful images that will become family heirlooms. I value the printed image because my own family photographs are so valuable to me.
I enjoy creating wall art for my clients that presents their images to scale on their own walls. And when they hang them in their homes and respond as this young mother below, it’s a win-win for me!
I asked my daughter to write a post about why she (as a young person in this digital age) felt it was still important to print images rather than have them collected on a hard drive or DVD.
Here are her comments:
If you were to walk through the front door of the house my husband and I recently purchased, you would be accosted by a 2 ½ year old and her 7 month old sidekick and confronted with a moderate level of clutter. Our house might smell like burnt macaroni and cheese and there might be a few dust bunnies hopping about, but if you would forgive these shortcomings and take a look at the walls of our home, you’d get a real sense for the values my family and I hold. You’d see the crosses and Bible verses on the wall and the “I love you to the moon and back” plaque representing the grandfather who passed away years ago. And you would see photo after photo of smiling faces of the friends and family who we treasure so greatly. Our walls are a testament to our values and a record of our memories. Most importantly to us are the photographs of our little girls.
The first step we took to make our house our home was to display our daughters’ portraits above the mantle. The canvas prints instantly transformed a bare wall into a precious exhibition. If you can tear your face away from the now 2 ½ year old vying for your attention as you enter our home, you’ll see her sweet baby cheeks that so quickly vanished as she grew, just begging for a pinch from above the fireplace. She hasn’t had those cheeks in many months, but that prized portrait captured them for us forever. If you are a parent, you’ll know how valuable that really is, and why that portrait hangs high on our wall.
Our daughters will remember their childhood home their entire lives, so we aim for it to be a pleasant place full of positive memories. When they remember our little house in the country, strongly connected to that memory will be dozens of others—those they saw every day on our walls, those most special to us. Our legacy to our children and to theirs is the preservation of their sweet baby faces and their toddler faces smeared with birthday cakes—their childhood, in photographs.
If you, too, value portraiture and have been stalling on having a photo shoot, call soon and allow me to create works of art for your home as well.
