Our Cambridge Family 2004

From left to right: My Mom, Taavo, Sharon, Yellowboy and me.

The original of this giant polaroid hangs in our living room in a plexi box. The image itself is 23” x 36” with remarkable detail.

A few years ago I inherited a couple of painted family portraits from the 1860s. As I looked up at them each morning I started wondering what would be today’s equivalent?

Around about this time, we discovered Elsa Dorfman, who as chance have it, has a studio 4 blocks away. Here is a link to her website- a rather amazing place.

Elsa is the real deal. A quintessential Cambridgian character who has been doing her Zen-like thing with a giant wooden polaroid camera for over 25 years.

Her thing is portraits.

She takes two shots. You can choose which one you want.

Just to see what we might be in for, I decided to email Elsa and ask if I could see her studio?

Her reply,

“i don’t do studio visits…believe it or not, talking abt the portrait beforehand, the quote approach, doesn’t seem to help me or my client.  email reassurance is fine….idiosyncracies are great on the camera….i think it is a medium for idiosyncratic people and only ONLY appeals to idiosyncratic folks…….my success is i think because the people who come are self selected……..

we will have a lot of fun. cheers. elsa”

Both our shots were great. Remarkable, considering each included 4 people and a cat.

And we did have a lot of fun.

Compositionally, my favorite part about our picture is the empty place next to me with the tipped over catnip container. We didn’t think about this. It just happened. I think of it as symbolizing a place for any family member or friend, past or future.

My Mom is sitting in her Eames’ chair- a wedding gift from 50+ years ago.

Last, but not least Sharon is wearing the very same remembrance broach, worn by Barbara Buchanan in our painted family portrait from the 1860s (below).