Family Affairs: Human relationships up close

For Spanish photographer Lucia Herrero, the beach serves as an escape from daily struggles. In her series "Tribes," the seaside provides a studio-like backdrop, with Herrero creating family portraits whose formality is reminiscent of ancient paintings. This work is among the pieces on show at the photo exhibition "Family Affairs" at Hamburg's Deichtorhallen museum.

For Israeli photographer Elinor Carucci, middle-aged women are often overlooked in the arts and in cinema. She wants to focus on women in this age group through her work, in which she often appears as a subject. Here, in "Three Generations" (2016), the photographer is seen on the left side, cuddling with her daughter and mother.

UK photographer Sian Davey focuses on the family in her work, and more specifically on children becoming teenagers — a phase that can be quite difficult. In a series called "Martha," Davey documents the development of her stepdaughter, Martha, from a child to a grown woman.

Italian photographer Dario Mitidieri took pictures of Syrian families in two refugee camps in Lebanon for his series "Lost Family Portraits." The composition of the photos is inspired by traditional family portraits, but the empty chairs stand for those who would have normally been present, but are lost or dead now.

In his series "The Absence of Two," Akihito Yoshida portrays the special relationship of a woman and her grandson over the years. She raised him as a child, and he went on to take care of her as an elderly woman. The protagonists of this story are Yoshida's own grandmother and cousin, whose bond has been immortalized through the photographer's pictures.

In her series "Ke Lefa Laka," which means "It's my inheritance" in Sesotho, South African photographer Lebohang Kganye places herself literally in her mother's shoes by adding a digital image of herself in the old pictures of her mother. In this manner, she brings them close to one another.

One Christmas Eve, Australian photographer Trent Parke was sick, and while he was throwing up in a bucket, he asked his wife to take a picture. That inspired an entire series, the "Christmas Tree Bucket," portraying bizarre aspects of family life during the holidays.

Argentinian photographer Gustavo Germano's pictures in the series "Ausencias" depicts the loss of family members through the military junta's war and persecution. He juxtaposes archival photographs with current pictures, keeping the memory of those who died in the center of his work. The exhibition "Family Affairs" runs from May 18 to July 4, 2021.