Self taught photographer and mother, Niki Boon spends her time documenting her children’s lifestyle with no electronics. I have chosen this body of work to look at in relation to the family photography theme as it primarily looks at childhood memories. I find Boon’s images to be very cheerful and captivating and gives me some peace of mind knowing that not all childhoods are taken over with electronic devices and social media, and yet you can still have a very enjoyable childhood.
Boon’s work pulls from her childhood memories of running barefoot, being muddy, and experiencing freedom and creating her own adventures as a child. Memories which still stick very strongly in her memory.
Niki Boon takes a very candid approach to her photographs which I think works really well with the style and nature of her work.
As the viewer you can see how much family photography is transforming in that it’s not just about standing/sitting in a stiff organised manner, its about documenting memories in the moment, as and when they happen. This has been a good transformation in family photography because it shows raw emotions. ‘Childhood in the Raw’ shows this as such. When you compare it to ‘The Dining Room’ by Sarah Jones you can see that Jones has taken a very normal but very staged approach to her imagery and has almost manipulated the facial expressions to suit the emotions she wants to portray in her photos instead of it being natural. However, Jones work relates slightly to traditional methods of family portraiture in that they used to be very stiff and mundane images.
The candid snaps of her children show and reflect a very carefree lifestyle where the children are completely present and free of the inevitable and endless distractions of social media, television and video games.
Critical theory 1960 Digital Research File 