Photography as Family Ritual: Visual Narratives in a Finnish Family Photo Album

Abstract

In this essay, I analyze photography as family ritual, particularly the act of posing as repetitive acts that construct girl- and womanhood. I focus my analysis of a Finnish family photo album and an autobiographical interview of one of the sisters in the photographs on points of resistance to cultural ideals. I posit that the family photographs shape memories, family relations, and cultural meanings associated with gender. Although the family photographs convey expectations of daughters within Finnish family cultural contexts, my close reading of the photographs recast the cultural norms and ideals commonly associated with girls. I assert that family photographs can be understood not just as a site objectifying girls, but also as enabling participation in reshaping family life. The contradictions exposed in the analysis between representation and experience provides an example of deconstructing the construction of images of daughters.