The materiality of family images and the rituals that dictate how they are made, stored, interacted with, and curated has changed enormously since the advent of the internet. The quick uptake of social media and fervent sharing of personal images has meant that our ability to project our familial narratives and ideals has a broader audience than ever before. The family album is no longer experienced tenderly by our nearest and dearest in the relative privacy of our homes but is broadcast to strangers on the internet, raising the stakes of our performances of family and manifesting new anxieties.

Family albums are designed to be touched. Held in your hands, rifled through, reminisced over by people who treasure them. These family albums deny the viewer this privilege. Instead, you can only peek into their pages to catch snippets and glances of lives lived. Partially open to the viewer but not accessible, these photographs tease at our desire to hold and peruse the albums they depict, whilst allowing them to remain private.