A Brief History of the Awkward Photo
Awkwardness: Making photography fun for over 80 years. Complete with photos and imagined commentary.
With the advent of sites such as AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, the fondness for uncomfortable (even to look at, let alone be in) and awkward photos is at an all-time high. It’s part nostalgia, part humor, part all too familiar. Take a quick look into your family photo albums and make the painful discovery that you too are a part of this phenomenon. That’s just the way we rolled from the 70′s on up to the early 90′s. But looking back even further with the help of some stock photos, we can see that this awkwardness trend has been in the works for years.
© Old Visuals. Image #EV001153.
- Vintage example of matchy matchy. Thanks, Mom. I totally won’t regret wearing the same outfit as my sister some day. Nor will I be harboring pent-up rage through my teen years. I mean, these are shorts and sis is wearing a skirt, so I doubt anyone will even notice that we match. Well, I gotta run . . . meeting a guy concerning “atomic wedgies” and getting my books dumped. Thanks again, Mom.
© Superstock. Image #255-417646.
- The classic awkward family portrait with the ideal family: father, mother, 2 girls, and a ventriloquist dummy. Given the popularity of Howdy Doody at the time, this was a natural family addition.
© Imagebroker RM. Image #IBLZNI01056566.
- Striking an unnatural pose. Times were tough. There was a shortage of labor. . . and of chairs, apparently. The only question here is who do you feel the most sorry for. Clearly, the gentleman on the far left got the worst of it. Sure, he doesn’t have 7 people sitting on him, but he is a grown man sitting in another grown man’s lap.
© Superstock. Image #1035-478.
- Worst team photo ever. That’s right, everybody put your hand on your teammate’s hip. That’s something that naturally occurs in baseball, right? This could also potentially be the least spirited conga line ever.
