Part essay, part memory—this piece finds the perfect form to explore the pictures that might rely most for meaning on the stories that accompany them: family photos. This article appears in the Summer 2011 issue of Southern Cultures: The Photography Issue.“‘It is in fact hard to get the camera to tell the truth; yet it can be made to, in many ways and on many levels. Some of the best photographs we are ever likely to see are innocent domestic snapshots.'”

Scott L. Matthews is assistant professor of history at Florida State College at Jacksonville.