Once a staid, posed affair, today’s family portraits borrow from the “snapshot” aesthetic. Family memories are documented ad nauseam. They fill up hard drives and are hardly ever looked at again. It would take too much time to sift through, print and arrange them in a photo album. The arrival of a newborn triggers a photographic frenzy. Photographed from every angle, a six-month baby has probably been photographed more than your grandmother over the course of her entire life.
Lilly and Leon Mackie, two young New Zealand parents, also decided to immortalize their new offspring, the beautiful baby Orson, but in family photos that are decidedly unlike others. Newly settled in Sydney, heaps of moving boxes had piled up in their basement. Instead of throwing them out, they began recreating film scenes with handmade cardboard sets. It’s a beautiful lesson it Do-It-Yourself creativity for uninspired parents with kids running wild on a Wednesday afternoon.
