That Awkward Moment When You Realize You Feature In An ‘Awkward Family Portraits’ Exihibit

We’ve all seen them, those awkward moments caught on film and then posted to the internet as the latest “awkward family portrait” meme or article. But did you know all these awkward family photos have been gathered together in the one place? AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com is the place to go if you want to submit your own awkward moment or revel in the awkward moments of others.

But wait, there’s more!

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com is now an exhibit. The Geneva History Museum will be hosting an Awkward Family Portraits exhibit featuring many of the awkward — and at times, disturbing — portraits featured on AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. So if you have ever submitted your own family’s awkward moment to the website and live close to the Geneva History Museum, you might want to head on down to see if your family portrait made it to Geneva’s most awkward exhibit.

The awkward moments exhibition will feature 200 photos and is the first stop for a national exhibition tour. Terry Emma, executive director of the Geneva History Museum, explained why they chose to feature such a unique exhibit.

“It’s a little bit out of the box for a museum, but I think it’s what we need to do to keep attracting new people. I think museums need to think more entertainment-wise because that’s what people want, and this is definitely leaning toward the more entertaining.”

But this is not the first time awkward family portraits have featured in an art exhibition. In July of last year, the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica hosted their own awkward photos exhibition using images from the Awkward Family Photos website. All the awkward family photos were displayed like they would be in anyone’s home, complete with wallpapered walls and kitschy frames. The Geneva History Museum will be continuing in this vein.

The Awkward Family Photos website was developed by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack in May 2009 after noticing the demand for awkward moments and funny family portraits. They were surprised at the fame their website has received but were always hoping their collaboration of awkward photos would someday end up as an exhibition in a museum.

“We started to toy around with the idea of, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could have these photos hung in a serious museum setting? We liked the juxtaposition of these fun photos in a serious museum and the idea of allowing people to interact with the photos up close and personal. When you look at them on a web page, you browse quickly, but in a museum setting you can really look at them and digest all the photos in one place.”

The Geneva History Museum’s Awkward Family Portraits exhibition runs from June 6 through to August 15, 2015. You can view the exhibit between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Booking details can be found by clicking here.

What’s your funniest awkward moment? Have you ever submitted you family portrait to AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com? Let us know by commenting below!

[Image credit: Geneva History Museum]