In the run up to Christmas many of us will end up posing for photographs with family and friends. Back in the old days those old pictures would likely be hidden away in some dusty photo album somewhere. Any embarrassment they could cause was thankfully limited. However, the old days are long since gone and those pictures you hoped would never see the light of day might find a new lease of life on the internet thanks to a hilarious website ‘celebrating’ awkward family photos,
The website is aptly called awkwardfamilyphotos.com and according to the sites founders, Mike Bender and Doug Chernack, it’s intended to be a “communal celebration of awkwardness.”
“It hit us that there was something universal about the awkwardness of family and we thought it be cool to blog about that,” Said Bender. “And what better way to show that than through the family photo, something everyone can relate to?”
The site is very familiar to one which I am itching to make a few submissions to. dorkyearbook.com is another photo submission site this time ‘celebrating’ the geeks of the world.
Since it’s creation in May this year awkwardfamilyphotos.com has received many thousands of submissions. Indeed the site has been such a success that a coffee table book of awkward family photo’s is set to be published early next year.
The awkwardfamilyphotos.com blog still gets more than 100 submissions a day from all over the world. Below are just a few of the my favorites.
I haven’t made any submissions to the site (and I’m hoping my family will also resist the temptation to do so!), though I do feel that a good addition would be the picture of President Obama and the First Lady with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, his wife, and their two goth daughters who had never been seen in the media before.
The site is very funny and well worth a visit if you have time. Visit it at awkwardfamilyphotos.com.
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awkwardfamilyphotos.com
dorkyearbook.com
Chronic taste failure
Beyond words
Wrote the following comment on Dec 10, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I love the family portrait with the brown background. It’s so hilarious, it almost looks staged. You can really see the characters of the people. Fantastic!
Hey, I enjoyed having a scout around your blog Simon.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 10, 2009 at 11:40 pm
It’s good to see what happened to Blake Carrington after Dynasty was canned. There he is with his grand children and Krystle, though time hasn’t been so good to her I see.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 10, 2009 at 11:55 pm
How bout we create some captions for these photos.
For the one with what I presume to be a Dad holding an semi-automatic weapon, with his son on the left and daughter on the right, I think something like “Dad was a strict disciplinarian” would work.
Or, take the pic on the bottom with the family and the two motorcycles where everyone has a semi-automatic, for this the caption could be “Rite of Passage: The year 10-year-old Jenny stopped playing with silly little pistols and learned to use a real woman’s weapon.”
Again, the picture with what I assume to be a father with a big grin on his face holding his baby could have a caption that says “I was stoned off my ass when I helped make this little one, and I haven’t come down yet.”
Finally, the picture with the dad and mom, the two girls, the snake and the gator could have a caption that reads, “That was the last year dad had two hands”
Wrote the following comment on Dec 11, 2009 at 12:00 am
Okay, one more. The one on the very top with the grandparents and grandchildren could have a caption that reads “Grandma! No more chili for you!!!”
Wrote the following comment on Dec 11, 2009 at 2:35 am
For the picture of the topless couple.
Excited at the prospect of becoming a daddy for the second time Dale Jnr was happy to pose for another family photograph with his sister.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 12, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Speaking of awkward family pictures, some that have been submitted for my grandparents’ new digital picture frame really should NOT been seen at 8″x10″. Hidden away in a dusty album is one thing, but me at thirteen years old is not something I want broadcast in their livingroom! Ah, well.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 12, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Of the picture of the little girl falling out of the stroller:
Little Megan had no idea her accident would lead to the birth of the break dancing craze of the 1980’s.
And of the final motorbike family picture:
Teachers always wrote glowing reports of the Johnson families children.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 13, 2009 at 3:37 pm
When I saw the title of your post I was so hoping to see some funny pictures of you :) These were pretty funny, though.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 14, 2009 at 6:20 pm
No such luck Paula :-)