Family

Henri Peretz is a sociologist and writer and is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris VIII. He is the author of Les méthodes en sociologie: L'observation (1998), contributing writer to The Table of Power by photographer Jacqueline Hassink (1996) and to the exhibition and book Magnum Landscape, published by Phaidon.

Sophie Spencer-Wood is a picture editor and researcher. She has worked with, among others, Colin Jacobson on Reportage magazine, among others, and as assistant to Bruce Bernard on Phaidon's award-winning book, Century. Her other books include Gandhi and Freedom: An African American Struggle, also published by Phaidon.

Margaret Walters is a critic, writer and broadcaster. She has written extensively on the visual arts and culture, and has broadcast frequently on the BBC. Her book The Male Nude: A New Perspective was published to much critical acclaim. She currently reviews novels for The Sunday Times.

Drawing from those same impulses that compel us all to take pictures of our family, this book considers the entirely unique response of photographers to their family and the significance of this work in the broader context of their photography. Family is a collection of c. 175 photographs by a wide range of photographers that consciously reflect on the experience of family. It presents the work of some of the earliest photographers to consider the subject, alongside those taking pictures of their family today. Rather than a sociological study that maps its metamorphosis, the book marks the curiosity for family and the element of autobiography that continues to stand the test of time