Do you have family photos in your home

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I've just read a rather dreary article in the Guardian about somoene who doesn't understand why people have family photos. I didn't enjoy it, but here it is if you want to read it:
What's the point of family photos

It got me thinking though. My parents agreed when they got married that they wouldn't have family photos dispayed in the house. There is the odd one or two of me and my siblings, but that's it. My grandparents have family photos all over the place. I only have photos of my siblings, as we know I don't get on with my parents and really don't want a photo to remind me they exist. My brother's mother in law thought it would be nice to give me a photo of my parents from his wedding. I kept it face down in a drawer for a while and then eventually threw it out.

I can understand why you would want photos of your friends and family and people you like on display. I do look through my photo albums from time to time. I love photos, but there are only 2 on display in my house.

Do you have family photos on display?

Just a few photos of my wife and I ... our kids ... a couple of godchildren ... our grand-daughter ... the orphans we sponsor (we're too old to adopt) ... a squirrel that fell down the chimney ... HRM Elizabeth II ...

I have photos of my daughter (and granddaughter) in every room, though TBH, my ex collected them all and put them in frames or I probably wouldn't have ever gotten round to it. There are a couple of old B/W shots on a shelf from my childhood, but that's about it. Oh, and a portrait studio wallet shot of my parents on the fridge.

I have a couple of photo albums full of pictures other family members have given me, but I never look at them.

I've never been one to get terribly sentimental about most photographs. Strangely, I used to have a box with photographs in it of virtually everyone I'd ever known, until an ex got jealous that there were photos of females besides her, so I threw it out.

Not really. Not because I think there is no point, because we have never used the time to get a family portrait or even have someone take a picture of us together with a regular camera and get it developed into a larger picture and frame it. But we do have single pictures like me with my son in my room, we have some of our son in the basement and it's him alone. I am not sure what we did with the pictures that was with me holding him as a newborn and my husband feeding him in the other. We had it up in our apartment and then in my room and then we took it down when we moved rooms. Most of our photos are on the computer or on disc and I have some on my Facebook t share with people who are on my friends. I would like to have a photo album sometime and get them all on disc or something and take it to get developed. My fear is always losing those pictures like if the computer crashes or the disc stops working or the external hard drive.

my family is Native American and Family is very important to us, we need to keep each other close so i have photos everywhere, in my room, i have baby pictures of my sister and me and my grandmother, who passed away in april.

I don't have photos of anyone on display.

The squirrel I can understand, but QE2?

It was either Her Royal Majesty:




Or Alfred E. Neuman:

I would so hang up a picture of the Queen. I used to have one of the Pope, but then JPII died and Benedict looked scary and I don't have one of this new one. I guess I'll get one though.

I have photos in the hallway going into the bedrooms and in silver frames in the den on tables. Somewhere or other I've picked up or absorbed these "decorating rules" for photos and things hung on the wall and put on tables. I don't know if they are "true" or part of any style or not but it's just whats done and not done, to me.

Here are the rules. In living rooms and dining rooms, you do not hang prints or photos. You only hang actual paintings or framed drawings or mirrors. There should be no dog, horse or hunting paintings in a dining room or living room. Only landscapes, still life, or portraits. In a foyer you can hang a mirror or painted portraits or framed heraldry or a plaque or framed information about the house, family or property, but no landscapes or still life. In a den, you can hang mirrors, paintings, framed prints, framed portrait photos, framed drawings, framed awards, or heraldry. In a hallway you can hang smaller artwork or photos or awards, and you can frame and group casual photos in a hall. In dining rooms, living rooms and foyers, the frames should be of the same material and the same type of style. In dens and hallways, frames don't have to be the same material or style but should be the same level of formal or casual, traditional or contemporary. In bedrooms, you can hang any type of painting, framed print or poster, framed portrait photo, or instead you can hang a grouping of casual photos and framed drawings or prints. The same rule for the den frames applies to the bedroom frames. Kids rooms are totally different animals, let them put up whatever they want.

Photos on tables have the following rules; In living rooms and dining rooms and foyers, they should be portrait type photos in silver or gold frames (or whatever contemporary formal frames if your house is contemporary), in dens and other rooms you can put out casual photos on tables in any style frames as long as they match the overall décor of the room. In bedrooms you can do the same.

A word on taxidermy;

Also a disclaimer. I like taxidermy and most hunters eat or give away the meat from the animals they mount. I have no problem with it if it's displayed correctly, but I do understand that some people loathe it. Skip this section then. There are "rules" about how to display it right. Lots of people just nail it up on the wall wherever there is an empty place and it ends up looking tacky. Also, some people buy the already dead and mounted trophy's at yard sales or something, and so not everybody who has trophy's is a heartless, soulless killer of Bambi's mother and will burn in vegan hell for eternity. Actually, if you like the look of trophy's and don't like the idea of killing an animal for your décor, then buying it used is a great compromise. It's already dead and it's pretty. If you do buy it used though, have it looked at by a good taxidermist before you bring it home and hang it.

Now, on to my rules for dead, stuffed wildlife and fish.

Taxidermy has it's own rules and they are as follows; Never overwhelm the area with the size of the mount. A small foyer or hall does not need a large buck head. Small fowl are appropriate. If your foyer is large enough for a deer mount, do not use it to hang hats on! Do not display fish in any room other than a den. Only table top mounts should be displayed in a living room, and only fowl. Dining room mounts should fit with the size of the room. While six large mounted heads around the room looks beautiful in a dining room that can seat twelve and has room for other furniture and high ceilings, it will look like the VFW in a regular dining room. Do not do this. Do not hang more than two large mounts in a dining room, and only hang deer or moose. A dining room is not the place for smaller mounts or exotics. The exception is a bear. If you have an entire standing bear mount, this can be displayed in the dining room, but in the corner and not where it scares the crap out of your guests when they walk in and don't expect it. Balance the mounts in the den. Remember not to overwhelm. A regular size den can not handle more than six deer or moose mounts. Two on each opposite wall and one on the other walls. Do not hang a deer mount above the fireplace unless it is spectacular. If you hang one buck mount above the fireplace, it should be a 12 point. You can hang a mirror with an 8 point on either side, but not a painting or anything else because that's overwhelming and draws attention away from the mounts. It goes without saying, do not mount anything below an 8. If you want a trophy from a 6, then mount the antlers only and hang them in a den or hallway. They are not coat or hat racks. Fish may be hung in a den but space them out. Do not group them together because it conjures up the image of a fish smell even though there isn't one. Small animal mounts can be hung in the den but hang them lower than your large mounts and not over the fireplace or over doors. Fish may be hung over doors in the den or in the hall. Space out freestanding mounts, and avoid anything kitschy like a lamp made from a real raccoon, or a boar turned into a table. Just don't. If you have anything unusual or exotic, showcase it without pictures, furniture, or knickknacks close by to overwhelm it. If it's very exotic and it's not a rug or head mount, consider displaying it in a glass case. You don't want it damaged by curious toddlers, territorial pets, or a drunk football fan who wants his picture made holding/hugging/sitting on it.

You do not have to be a hunter to display mounts, you can buy them. You do not have to have a plaque with the hunters name and date on there, unless it was a mount that was given to you and the plaque is there when you got it. If you buy secondhand mounts, you can get the plaques removed, but do not replace it with your own name on a plaque. No reputable taxidermist will do that for you, and if you do it yourself you are probably going to end up getting caught out in the lie. It's best to just say "It was given to me". You can mount deer you hit with your car if they are trophy deer, but do not say you shot it. Also, don't put a "killed by" plaque on it because even though it's technically true, it's just wrong.

Photos of hunters with their kills that were never mounted are fine in the den, but try to put them in a grouping. Do not put the photo and the mount in the same room. You are free to display the photo of you and the trophy deer in the woods, but do so in another room, not where the mount itself is.

Framed collector guns can be hung in the dining room, hall, foyer or dining room. Framed collector long guns should be displayed in a glass case in the den. Not the living room. Your gun cabinet belongs in the den or your bedroom, not the dining room or living room. Do not hang a framed or mounted gun by a taxidermy mount unless it was used to kill the animal. If you hang a gun by or above a mount it implies that you shot it with that gun, or you want people to think you did.

Do not hang a jackalope anywhere in your house. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. If you do so, I will come and visit you. I will. I will hunt you down and come and visit. For a week long stay too! Without laryngitis! I am also annoying as hell, as you probably know by now and it's probably worth it to keep from having to be polite and listen to me talk to you for hours about things you don't care about to simply not bring a freaking jackalope into the house. Jackalopes are the tackiest things known to man and shouldn't be in any house, ever. They should only be hung in places where only men gather to talk about sports, guns, and beer.

One other bit of advice, and I've only seen it once, but once is enough. (This is not for people in the UK) Unless you actually inherited a suit of armor from your ancestors and it's been handed down for generations, do not buy one and put it in your house. It does not look "classy". It looks like you either bought a suit of armor or you are in the middle of a very extravagant SCA project.

So that's Olives rules for pictures, and where mine are.

I don't dispaly family photos in the house. I don't have a problem with it if it does not look like a bunch of clutter but I don't do it. I like paintings better.

? Are you British?

I do not have a single image of any type of creature anywhere in my home. Which may be a bit odd because for several years I created portraits for a living. I even once presented a lecture on how to incorporate fine portraiture into one's interior decor. My gallery housed over 30 large wall portraits, all of which I enjoyed (which was fortunate because I created them ; but in my home the notion of having to look constantly at a face, and have it peer back at me, rather creeps me out.

That said, this thread has prompted me to consider a portrait of HRH. We shall see.

Yeah, I have some family photos, and I like reminiscing from them every now and then.

no it feels silly I keep the photos in my mind.

Nope. I feel monitored by them! They belong in a box.
The only family photo I display, is a picture of my grandfather at age 14, because the old yellowed picture of the handsome young man and the simple, square metal frame goes so beautifully together.

Never got into photos I look terrible in them and what would be the use of them I have memory for all that stuff. Hate clutter and the sentimental nature of it does nothing for me.