Rediscovered this old post about family photography by John Loomis.
Photographing my family became the way through which I was able to find my own voice in a sense. I was free to shoot things anyway that I liked, and to try new methods and techniques that stuck me in the work of my heroes. And in shooting people that I love I was connected to the deep well of emotion that can reside in a photograph that makes it rise above images made without such care for the subject. That sounds strange but I didn’t get that before in such an immediate way. It’s so simple though. Pictures made with love result in photographs that have a special power about them. And its held true throughout my career.
Stefan Rohner agrees with me on Sally Mann. He adds Larry Towell as an inspiration on the family photo front. Stefan counts this photo as a family favorite (lovely daughter at a lovely moment). I like this one, which is a classic by any definition.
Velibor Bozovic documents his family’s burying of a shrew. (What exactly is a shrew?) Any backstory on this event, Veba?
Eight Diagrams 
Wayne, your favorite is also one of mine, let me add this one: http://www.stefan-rohner.net/portfolio/dailylife/022.jpg
very good thoughts from John.
While on vacation in friend’s cottage we encountered death twice. First we found a dead mouse in a cupboard (first image in your link), decomposed, only his skeleton and fur left. The cottage is not accessible during the winter and the poor creature has been dead for months.
Then, the last morning we found a dead shrew on the porch, we had two cats with us and whenever they would catch the pray (very rare, this year only once) in the woods they would leave it on the porch for us to see (it’s just a game for them, they would never it any). Now, my ignorant eye wouldn’t be able to differentiate the shrew from the mouse, they really look alike. The kids wanted to bury the shrew and named him Fluffy because ‘his fur was really soft’.
Death is terrifying but it could be beautiful (that can be seen in the images of Sally Mann, from her series What Remains).
Fluffy, the shrew, got a very nice burial which all other shrews could only dream about.
Stefan, great images…