corbell family photos // los angeles, californa

I always tell the families that I photograph that we will meet in their home & take it from there, because my ultimate goal is to document their life as it is now, so that when their kids look at the photos later they feel more like memories. When I came into the home of Miranda, Hawk, Áine, & Saoirse it was the perfect time, because someone was still napping, someone was still practically naked & singing away, and the parents were just very chill & relaxed as they watched their day progress. Later in the day, after I left, everything was going to be commencing as usual with preschool & birthday parties & work & the usual, so it really did feel like I had just kind of happened into their world & happened to have a camera. Their house was cozy, but everything felt alive with childish excitement…we talked & played & went for a short walk around the block. I imagine that they had originally hoped we would go somewhere hip or maybe more “picturesque” for their family photos, but being there to just hang out for a normal day together as a family & departing when they were also all walking out the door & giving kisses goodbye, seemed like the most perfect picture that I could ever hope to capture.

And since these photos were taken, I’ve found out that they’re moving into a different house & neighborhood altogether… which makes me think of little Saoirse, who was born in this house & learned the faces of her family for the first time in this house, but she will likely never remember living in this house. It reminds me of how when I was growing up, my family would always talk about the house I was born in, and how it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that the house I was born in was completely different house than the one that I remember living in, because we’d moved when I was a baby. And it also reminds me of all the apartments that Madeline & I have lived in… how each & every one of them holds all of these special memories for me, that she really only shares with me by way of storytelling and not by way of her own memory. Does this all really matter? Probably not. The memories that we form as parents from the quiet days, the noisy days, the long nights, the snuggly mornings, the happiness, the sadness… those memories I would hope that our children will forever share with us, regardless of the house or apartment that those memories happened in.

All of this made me feel very happy to be photographing such a simple day in their life together, in a house that is a vault of warm memories… but that will soon be just a memory.

{side note: thanks so much to Lemonade & Lenses for featuring this session! xo!}