Facade ??

Tonight i've been doing some thinking about my project.

I've been thinking about family portraits and what they are exactly.

In my opinion, I think that formal portraits hide SO much. The photographer doesn't know the ins and outs of someones life, and they don't want to know, they want to make the family look good and look happy and friendly. But... is that true to the family ?

Where does a portrait go ? It is usually framed and hung somewhere in the family home, usually somewhere on show to visitors. So it is an object to portray happiness to other people ? Is it to fool the family themselves that they are that happy and friendly and close? Is it a facade ?

My mom has always wanted a Family Portrait done of her, me and my 2 brothers. I've never asked her why so tonight I decided to do just that. I asked her what her motivation is for wanting a family portrait. Her answer was... "so I can look at it and think to myself 'see we were happy' So I can look at it to see us all together"

So in this respect, it's a facade. Because in truth we are not all together, and are we really that happy ? My brother lives with his girlfriend, my other brother is away at boarding school, and as of September I will be away at uni, leaving my mom home on her own. So will it act as a memory to her, almost like a keepsake. It is not a reflection of younger years because naturally as siblings we argued, we were sad from loss, we never really had a family relationship where we all sat down together for 'family time'.

It's so difficult and really mind-boggling. I feel really interested in this whole idea of it being fake and posed, I don't think they are true to the family. I want to follow this into my final product, I just don't know how ! HELP !!