Project Name
Father to Son
Posted in
Photography
Photographer
Kristen Schmid
Detailed Information
Project NameFather to SonPosted inPhotographyPhotographerKristen Schmid

On a recent trip to the children’s hospital in the middle of the night, my youngest son, almost two and nestled in my arms, reached out for his father as soon as he felt the frightening presence of a stranger in a white robe approaching him with an ambivalent smile. Signifying the first time he ever turned to his dad for help, ever since, his interest has switched towards him and anything involving his presence: playing with his big shoes, snuggling in his rough arms, watching the way he eats and talks, the way he walks... Clumsy and eager, my son has decided, just before his second birthday, to follow in his father’s footsteps.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

As time goes by, I realize that, for most boys at least, mother is where you’ve been and father is what you will become. For me, raising men is a strange art form, where as a mother you must step out of the picture in order to let the relationship between father and son grow; you need to give these two men space so that that can find out what part they play in each other’s lives, allow them to accept, fight and disappoint one another before eventually mirroring each other.

This exact bond and the way it develops over time is the main subject of an ongoing documentary project by American photographer Kristen Schmid, who is also a mother of two boys. Her Father to Son series documents, explores and celebrates the relationship between her husband and their first son since the boy’s birth in 2006, all in a very simple and unpretentious way. As she takes a step back to observe and to nurture the intense, complex and evolving relationship between her husband and their oldest son, Schmid follows the fluid connection between these two people, without them always being aware of her presence. ‘‘This influential bond forms slowly, a little bit at a time,’’ Schmid notes. ‘‘Their everyday interactions are more meaningful than even they realize… They are not always aware of each other's perspective, or how their actions affect each other. Sometimes they don’t see how similar they are.’’ 

On the third Sunday of June (in 2015 the 21st of June), Father’s day is celebrated in 76 countries around the world.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

{YatzerTip} The clearest sound an unborn baby hears through the womb is that of its father’s voice. Experts claim that the best way to calm an unsettled infant is by laying it to rest on its father’s chest, while he speaks to his child, thus reproducing the womb memory.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

photo © Kristen Schmid.

Father to Son: Documenting the Subtle Details of a Powerful Bond

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