An Alternative Family Portrait

A few years back we were lucky to have our family portrait taken by the photographer Martin Parr. We’d worked with Martin for many years, framing his photography for exhibitions so this was a very special opportunity for us.

Martin had built a pop up studio in Rocket Gallery (back when they used to be in the Tea Building, London) and was offering all sitters a number of random props to hold in their portraits. He loved the fact that our daughter Coco had bought her unicorn along and was insistent that should be in the shot. We decided to keep the props to a minimum and I grabbed this rainbow hued feather duster at the last minute. Sid our one eyed English Bull Terrier had his eye on another dog that was waiting and this shot was literally taken between Sid trying to barge his way out of the pop up studio towards the other dog. There was a lot of barking and growling going on, kids were crying in the background and Martin was very amused by the whole situation, gleefully muttering about how he’d always been told to avoid working with children and animals.

We all look slightly unsure in the portrait which I love – its classic Martin Parr.