This is week 38 of our Photo 52.2 and this week we are focusing on groupings. Photographing groups of people can be an especially challenging and rewarding exercise in creative composition. A modern approach to a posed group portrait might focus on subjects physically touching and emotionally connecting with each other. Something more old-fashioned might recall the formal poses of classical painters, where subjects are often rigid, carefully posed and emotionally restrained. With the resurgence of film and the popularity of post-processing techniques that emulate film, this old-school approach to posing groups of people is especially trendy right now.

A lifestyle approach to group portraiture is similar to street and travel photography (and other types of photography that recall a photojournalistic style) in that it is is often more candid and seemingly spontaneous than a carefully posed portrait. Using this approach, a photographer must often exert deliberate patience in order to capture what Cartier-Bresson famously called "the decisive moment". The effective use of depth and subject separation in this candid style of group portraiture can make for a very powerful image.

To see all the groupings together, click HERE

The beautiful Donohue/Anderson/Walker Family