To the extent photography is often thought of as a violation - as more intrinsically exploitative than other mediums - family pictures hold the artist more accountable than any other subject imaginable; at the same time, much more is at stake.

Photographing one’s own family is always more treacherous than photographing anyone else. We never just walk away from our families as we do from most of our other photographic subjects. Would many families let an outsider penetrate the security of domestic privacy? Will a photographer’s pictures of her children inadvertently burden the children when the pictures become part of our public culture? Will a child’s or parent’s feelings about the images conflict with the art maker’s ambitions?

Tom Bamberger writing in Blood Relatives: the family in contemporary photography