Photographer Creates Portraits of Family Members by Shooting Possessions

How much can you learn about a person by simply looking at things he or she has owned in their life? This question was explored a couple of years ago in a project that documented the things people would save from a burning house, and it’s also the question behind photographer Camilla Catrambone’s project titled, “Portraits of My Family.”

The portraits in the series aren’t of faces but of things. Catrambone goal was to represent the members of her family by collecting special possessions, arranging them neatly on a flat surface, and then photographing the arrangement as a snapshot of a person’s life.

The photograph above is a “portrait” of Ilva, Catrambone’s grandmother. Here’s another portrait of Ilva:

A portrait of Grandpa Mario, Ilva’s husband:

A portrait of “nanny Renata”:

A photo of things owned by Grandpa Antonio:

Finally, these two photographs represent Catrambone’s mom:

You can find more of Catrambone work through her Behance page.

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Image credits: Photographs by Camilla Catrambone