A Surprising Reason To Update Your Family Photo!

Nikki MacDonald
Apr 24, 2015
3 min read

One of the aspects of family photography that parents and most photographers rarely think about is how it can help us raise children with stronger confidence in their own worth and abilities. Psychologists and experts have done some work recently that explores this theory.

A very interesting study was conducted by Tulane University in 1975 with a group of fourth graders at a Tennessee school. During a five week period, the children took Polaroid instant photos of themselves with provided cameras in a variety of assigned poses, compositions and expressing various emotions. The children worked with the printed images of themselves and created scrapbooks once a week over those five weeks. Testing of the students and teachers at the conclusion of study revealed a significant increase of 37 percent in the students’ average self-esteem behaviors. This Murfreesboro Study shows some evidence personal photography of children seen and enjoyed in a specific way can help boost a child’s self-esteem.

But how can family portraits, help boost a child’s self-esteem?

David Krauss, a licensed psychologist from Cleveland, Ohio said, “I think it is really important to show a family as a family unit. It is so helpful for children to see themselves as a valued and important part of that family unit. A photographer’s job is to create and make the image look like a safe holding space for kids where they are safe and protected. Kids get it on a really simple level.” Krauss is one of the earliest pioneers in using people’s personal photography and family albums to assist in mental health counseling and therapy. He co-authored “Photo Therapy and Mental Health” in 1983 that is considered a founding text for the use of photography in therapy. “It lets children learn who they are and where they fit,” says Judy Weiser. a psychologist, art therapist and author based in Vancouver. “They learn their genealogy and the the uniqueness of their own family and its story. When a child sees a family portrait with them included in the photograph they say to themselves: ‘These people have me as part of what they are, that’s why I belong here. This is where I come from.'” Weiser has spent more than 20 years using all manner of personal photography to assist in the treatment process of her clients. She is considered by many to be the foremost authority on these treatment techniques, called PhotoTherapy. To put it simply, it's important to have family photos, and it's equally as important to have these photos hanging on the wall where every member of the family can regularly see it and connect with it.

“Displaying photos prominently in the home sends the message that our family and those in it are important to one another, and we honor the memories we have experienced,“ says Cathy Lander-Goldberg, a licensed clinical social worker and a professional photographer in St. Louis, Missouri and the director of Photo Explorations, which offers workshops to girls and women using portrait and journaling for self-reflection.

Additionally, Krauss recommends having photographs of that child with their family placed in the child’s bedroom so it can be among the last things they see before sleep and the first thing they may see before beginning their day. “It says we love you and care about you. You’re important.” (Cummins, C. February 2015)

The other important thing to remember is that life is constantly changing, and you never know when that picture on the wall is going to change. Death, divorce, deployments.....any one of these things, or countless others, could change the family dynamic. In our home we regularly update our family photos. We also have snapshots in frames all over the walls in every room. It's easy to take a walk down memory lane when one of us is having a tough day, and it's easy for friends and visitors to see that our family is a priority in our life.