Awkward Family Photos

Snapping the perfect family photo creates stress for anyone involved. Should we go casual and wear blue jeans with polo shirts on a beach or be a bit crazy, wear matching outfits and — wait for it — lean toward the camera? Ah, choices.

This user-powered blog highlights the most well, awkward, family photos submitted by its contributors. Just don’t show this to your mom for portrait suggestions.

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Childhood friends Mike and Doug (who’d rather not divulge their last names) were swapping typically cringeworthy stories about their relatives when it dawned on them: there’s something universal about the awkwardness of family. And, as Mike recalled thinking, “What better way to show that than through the family photo, something everyone can relate to.” So the men trekked back to Mike’s house and began Googling in earnest. “Doug found the one with the family on the tree. That was it,” Mike wrote in an e-mail from his Los Angeles abode. “It was so beautifully awkward … That was the moment we realized there might be something here.” Thus, AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com was born.

The site’s slogan says it all: “Spreading the Awkwardness.” From uncomfortably intimate pregnancy portraits to couples striking bizarre poses, the photos elicit a baffling combination of amusement and unease. Like Postcards From Yo Momma, the site exploits (er, pays tribute to) the embarrassing moments that make us love our family enough to shame them. (See pictures of U.S. Presidents and their children.)

Check out the Awkward Family Photos Album with a few of the fan favs.