Danielle Guenther...

Danielle Guenther is a Family and lifestyle photographer from New York. She is a self 

taught photographer who finds inspiration from her children and likes to create images in the mind of a child's perspective. She takes some images documenting every day life, however she is best known for her staged family photos which have been featured in vogue magazines. 

She calls this series ''Best Case Scenario''. She strived to outline the everyday routines and situations that occur in a normal day as a parent which can be stressful and tiresome and turn them into beautifully thought out and staged photos of family life. 

Despite being strategically planned, the photos come out with a comedic effect whilst capturing daily life as a busy family. 

Danielle is also inspired by her own family as she tries to recreate scenes of family life that have occurred in her own life. By putting a comedic slant on every day chores or boring tasks it creates a relatable backdrop for a family shoot, rather than the posed and staged portraits that don't reflect the natural atmosphere of a typical family.

"After all, should we really take parenting so seriously?!  It's so important to capture families in their everyday life, because  after starting a family, your life seems to pick up speed forever. "  ~Danielle Guenther.

  http://www.danielleguentherphotography.com/about.html

Image Analysis...

Objectively, this image is set in a bathroom which is decorated with cluttered children, scattered toys and disorganised mess. Despite this, it gives a clinical white background to the colourful chaos of children and a tired mother draped over the toilet. One child is creating more mess, another is eating from a packet of sweets on the floor, whilst another is drinking from a carton held for him by his drained mum.

However the somewhat messy appearance of this image has been carefully put together to create the subjective message of perhaps what a mother does for her children and what a realistic motherhood looks like rather than the rose-tinted image the media often puts forward.  

The way the mother is holding the drink for her son whilst clearly tired and drained shows how even when the chaos becomes overwhelming a mother continues to help her children. It also puts forward the beauty of childhood and how every, tiny,  routinely activity can be turned into fun and excitement.

The series is called "best case scenario" and shows the real every day routines of family life that can sometimes feel repetitive and laborious and portrays them in a more light-hearted and comedic way. Danielle Guenther took these images to show the reality of adulthood, along with parenthood verses the expectation seen in magazines and the wider media.
The comedic aspect of her images is evident through the bright and colourful way of portraying the family. The story that is presented within this image is exaggerated using a comedic way of picturing this family, for example the every day mundane chores such as getting ready are emphasised by the playful nature of the children and props used to depict this boring reality. She also photographs them from an observational perspective, whereby she is looking in to a families morning routine. 

''Worst Case Scenario''
My responses...

In these images I wanted to portray the side to the family and the normal family photos that aren't put up on the wall of your family home, and aren't displayed in photography shops or exhibitions. The side many of us try our best to hide from the extended family and friends. The side that isn't ''perfect'' and rose-tinted, the side that is the reality of every single family.

Danielle Guenther calls her series ''Best Case Scenario'' in contrast to that I wanted to create images that are the ''worst case scenario'' but in fact are the bitter truth for a normal family and is the distorted reality that is so often covered by posed and structured images that are too hard to live up to. However I still wanted my images to be just as beautiful and just as ''perfect'' as the unrealistic photos you see in shop windows, just with a bit more truth behind them.

I wanted to show the beauty of pregnancy and the relationship between a woman and her baby, however add the things that aren't always so easy and that often go overlooked and hidden behind fake smiles and awkward stances, for example cooking, cleaning, and organising. I also wanted to portray the things a mother goes through to protect and love her baby even before it's born.

For a lot of people the only glimpse of family life and in particular pregnancy, is the edited versions displayed on family walls or in photo shops. However this is the reality of the situation. It doesn't always look beautifully lit, easy and a 'glowing' period of time in a woman's life. The reality is that it still involves the every day things and morning sickness and a growing stomach.

As with Danielle Guenther, I wanted to create the well lit scenarios which represent motherhood and the preparation before the baby comes. However with Guenther's work she calls her series 'best case scenario' and portrays the situations in a more comedic and

light-hearted way. With my images I wanted to portray the reality of those scenes and create them in a way which represents the real struggles of a pregnant woman and family life in general.

Guenther's work illustrates the idea of expectation verses reality. It aims to portray the way the family actually is but with beautifully lit and very exaggerated facial expressions to show that although this is the chaotic truth, it seems more desirable than the reality of the situation. I took these shots of my sisters bump to show the comparison of beautifully lit 'bump shots' to the reality of looking down at an overgrown stomach, stretched and painful which isn't always 'beautiful'. I edited these into black and white to further enhance the meaning behind them without the distraction of colour.