‘Pennsylvania In-Laws’ offers a glimpse into a very specific Middle America. Revealing with humor, the dysfunction of family and clan gatherings, I have documented in black and white photographs my husband’s Pennsylvania Dutch family. Descendents of German and French Protestants, their ancestors date back in this eastern Pennsylvania region almost 200 years.

The cultural landscape revealed in this on-going series extends over sixteen years and four generations, within the boundaries of a family life that largely takes place inside a five-mile radius. Visiting during annual holiday rituals and family celebrations, my perspective is seen primarily through the confines of family houses, porches, and yards and the occasional social hall and restaurant. Often the year of the photograph is lost to the viewer by a timeless moment suspended over an ornamented room. Defined by its inhabitants, a panorama of decorations reveal more about this insulated culture than the interactions of its family members. The convergence of generations reveals boredom, and acceptance along with celebration and at times absurdity. Repeatedly the landscape fills with symbols of Americana imbedded in family legacy. These characters grow up, gain weight, and age in front of an observant lens.

Turning my lens on my husband’s family has brought wit to the role of in-law and, in a larger sense, made me understand the broader fabric of the American family. The intimate distance of being an in-law has made it easier to be a witness here then in the house I grew up in. I am not merely an observer, photographer, and wife, but also a regional and religious outsider in a place where the individual is always defined within the context of region, clan and church.

The cycle of the family celebration, a scene dictated by generations of customs often fraught with tension and misgivings can also provide a guidepost for personal clarity. By illuminating a specific America, ‘Pennsylvania In-Laws’ addresses the universal nature of family/clan relations and its poignant and complex role within society. It is a view that affords attentive consideration.