"Family Legacy"

I bought this vintage picture at a garage sale last summer.  I love how each family member, even though touching another, seems so uncomfortable and staged.  While working with the photo, I imagined that they rarely physically or emotionally connected which is why it looks so forced in the photo.  If you look at each of them individually, you can easily imagine that each could have been posing for a picture alone rather than as part of a family.  My mind then wonders if this was a family in which emotions were not considered an important or valuable aspect of life and that this disconnect was a legacy that was passed down from generation to generation. 
Even though I understand that during the time in which this picture was taken getting photographed was an occasion and most didn't smile for these serious portraits, this particular picture still tells me a story.

I have a friend who won't touch or look at any of my art that is made from these old photographs.  She thinks that the spirit of the person in the photo might come back and haunt those who 'defiled' their likeness.  Shoot, I hope that if someone finds a picture of me in a hundred years that they make something fun/artistic out of it.  I'll be sure to smile kindly on them, not haunt them.
Till Soon,
Marianna