Untitled (Jeffrey Gamache family portrait) c. 1970

Curator: I’m feeling a little nostalgic looking at this photograph by Ken Whitmire Associates of the Jeffrey Gamache family. It’s…well, it’s quite a thing, isn’t it? Editor: It is! This photographic print captures this large family in a studio setting. How do you read this portrait in terms of the American family? Curator: Oh, that's interesting! In a way, it's a tapestry of a specific era, isn't it? The clothing, the hairstyles, the slightly forced smiles…it speaks to a time of striving for a certain ideal, a kind of performative togetherness. What do you think they were hoping to project? Editor: Perhaps unity and prosperity? But maybe it reveals more about the artifice of such portrayals. Curator: Precisely! The photograph feels almost like a stage set, hinting at the complexities beneath the surface of family life.