During my last trip to London, I spent some time photographing Dean, Giselle, and their two gorgeous children. These guys are a family the way I see it intended: theirs is a home full of life, noise, activity, mess, and love, and most of it seems to centre around their kitchen table. It’s everything I remember fondly about my childhood, bumped forward 25 years. While I fully intend to document that side of their household in the not-so-distant future (brace yourself, G – it’ll be awesome), it was fun to get them out of the house for some classic portraits this time around.
We took a walk along the almost-always-bustling Wimbledon Common and headed over to Cannizaro House, which hosts some beautiful gardens (and a slightly odd man in a motorised wheelchair, who we’re not sure was joking when he said he’d run us over). Before looking at the photos, there are a few things you need to know about this family: 1) Esme is the single most lovely, chattiest little girl I have ever come across in my life; 2) Oscar pretends to dislike his sister and acted reluctant to sit with her during our session, but secretly (well, “not-so-secretly” now…) missed her fiercely when he went away on school camp; 3) I think Esme’s face might be made of rubber because I’ve never seen someone who can get their face to go in as many simultaneously separate directions as she can; 4) this session was a great reminder that kids can assume some really unusual and uncomfortable-looking poses without ever appearing to experience any discomfort. Sound like a random summary? Well, that just about sums up the Smiths on the best of days! ;)
Dean and Giselle clearly adore each other and have put to use some of the best parenting practices Rich and I have ever seen, making theirs an absolutely divine family to be around. It’s always a pleasure to see these guys, so to be able to go for a visit and capture them as a family was such a treat.
Here are some favourites from their session:
