Envisioning Family: A photographer’s guide to making meaningful portraits of the modern family

Chapter 6. Interacting with Your Subjects

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

—Anais Nin

So what does it mean to interact with your subjects? Does it mean merely sharing a great topic of conversation? Exchanging contact information? Asking someone about all of her favorite things? Sharing vulnerabilities? Establishing a decent rapport? Endlessly asking a wide variety of questions, such as these? I certainly hope not. That sounds exhausting.

I would suggest that meaningfully interacting with others—whether you’re photographing them or not!—often comes down to simply getting past the superficial bubble we all place around ourselves ...