Recently I was assigned by the Statesman to photograph author Bernadette Noll and her family for a story on minimalist parenting.
I’m not a parent, but the words “minimalist parenting” seem kind of odd to me. I mean, shouldn’t children rely on their parents to be the authority figures in their lives? So many TV shows are based on kids acting up and parents keeping them in line. Taking a minimalist approach sounds like mom and dad giving a kid the basics – food, water, shelter – and letting the kids figure out the rest for themselves.
Yeah, that wasn’t it at all.
The story was more about parents not stressing over every little aspect of their kid’s lives, and, instead, slowing down to enjoy the time they have together as a family.
A good example of that was at the end of the shoot when I wanted to get one last family photo of Noll, her husband Kenny Anderson, and her four children. They had been playing a board game and the youngest, Dean, 6, had put on a fake mustache during the game. Everyone gathered around Noll and Dean still had the mustache on. Being conscious that most parents might not want their family photo to feature a thick, black, fake mustache on a six-year-old, I asked if he was going to leave it on for the photo.
Noll turned to Dean and said, “it’s up to you. What do you want to do?” Dean said he wanted to keep it on, so the family portrait included the mustache.
In most cases, I’d do one picture without the mustache, just in case, but this somehow seemed perfect.
From a (theoretical) parent aspect, what would the harm be in letting your child wear a mustache in a picture? The world wouldn’t end, the family wouldn’t be disgraced, nothing would happen except it would show people that you have a sense of humor, and it would let the child know that he does have a say in his own behavior. Noll might be on to something here.
Anyway, that’s enough parental musing from this non-parent. Let’s get back to the photography.
When I arrived at their home that evening, it was cloudy, but not too cold, so the family took advantage of their wonderland of a yard. They have a very large, metal slide that they inherited from a friend, a rope swing and some other playground equipment.
After a few minutes it started raining and we went inside for a change of venue and family activity. This time it was a board game.
It was such a nice change of pace to be welcomed in to a home where the family wasn’t worried about how they would look in the pictures. They were just themselves. That’s all we ever really want as photojournalists.