The Family Ogden

2023

The Family Ogden is a collaborative conceptual documentary project exploring Jacob and his family’s experiences of autism and everyday family life. Developed through conversation and observation, the work begins with the family’s own experiences and uses photography to translate them into a visual form.

The work is presented in the form of a family photo album alongside extracts from Jacob’s diagnosis, highlighting the contrast between clinical description and the actual person. It draws on the album’s traditional role as a selective record of family life: an intimate but carefully constructed version of how a family chooses to represent itself. This reflects the collaborative nature of the project and the tension between revealing something deeper about family experience and recognising that those being photographed will continue to influence and control how that experience is presented.