Awkward Family Photos [Paperback]
Mike Bender (Author), Doug Chernack (Author)
Based on the hit website, AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com (“painful, regrettable, horrifyingly awesome snaps of family bonding, you will laugh so hard that people in adjoining offices will ask what’s wrong with you”—Esquire), this full color book features never-before-seen photos and hilarious personal stories covering everything from uncomfortable moments with relatives, teen angst, sibling rivalry, and family vacations from hell. Cringe at the forced poses, bad hair, and matching outfits--all prompting us to look at our own families and celebrate the fact that we're not alone. Nothing says awkward better than an uncomfortable family photograph!
For several years, Paul Kooiker and Erik Kessels have organized evenings for friends in which they share the strangest photo books in their collections. The books shown are rarely available in regular shops, but are picked up in thrift stores and from antiquaries. The group’s fascination for these pictorial non-fiction books comes from the need to find images that exist on the fringe of regular commercial photo books. It’s only in this area that it’s possible to find images with an uncontrived quality. What’s noticeable from these publications is that there’s a thin line between being terrible and being awesome. This constant tension makes the books interesting. It’s also worth noting that these tomes all fall within certain categories: the medical, instructional, scientific, sex, humour or propaganda. Paul Kooiker and Erik Kessels have made a selection of their finest books from within this questionable new genre.
Awkward Family Photos – Now in convenient book form
Awkward Family Photos made a splash online last year as people from far and wide came to enjoy the stilted splendor and intense discomfort of people the world over whose most awkward posed moments were caught on camera. The bizarre family portrait depository created by Doug Chernack and Mike Bender went viral and became its own meme. Now the primo source for strange family photos is coming to the easily amused in convenient book form. If your computer literacy is as fresh as the 1970s attire commonly found on the Awkward Family Photos website, the book is for you.
Awkward Family Photos – in case you missed them
Awkward Family Photos is a website where we can all visit to laugh over just how strange other people look. Mike Bender and Doug Chernack began with just a few shots from friends and family, but things quickly took off. Rather than leaving those old family portraits buried in the pages of a photo album, Awkward Family Photos gives them new life. Now those theme photos, strange baby faces and shipwreck-from-the-past stylings are big business, so much so that Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb recently had Bender and Chernack on the “Today” show. The duo no longer needs payday loans with no fax.
“Awkward Family Photos” will debut at No. 3 on the NYT list
The website for Awkward Family Photos gets about 15 million hits and users submit more than 6,000 photos per month, so the book was a no-brainer. Considering that it will debut in the number three position on the New York Times best-seller list, other people’s embarrassment is clearly a hot commodity. Gifford, who is awkward enough on television, claimed she had photos of her own to contribute. Imagine just how awkward the non-celebrities who populate Awkward Family Photos must be – then run out and buy a copy of the book or find the funny on the Web.
Awkward vs. inappropriate
In general, Bender and Chernack claim that Awkward Family Photos is family friendly. They do their best to keep the more risqué shots off the website, and they aren’t in the book, either. The creators also do what they can to prevent family strife. If a photo goes up that causes friction, it will generally be removed from the site. Thankfully, there are so many hilariously appropriate submissions that Bender and Chernack claim they have “no shortage of material for future books.”
What’s next for the Awkward Family Photos crew?
Taking a page out of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Bender and Chernack are planning an awkward family videos site. It will be interesting to see if that site will capture the same “skewered on the end of a fork” moment-in-time feel that still photographs convey. Considering their success with Awkward Family Photos, it seems likely that whatever they touch will turn to extremely awkward embarrassment gold.
(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/ / CC BY 2.0)
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