Favourite Documentary Family Moments of 2025
This is a collection of favourite moments – not chosen by judges, but chosen by the photographers who lived them, noticed them, and felt their weight in real time.
Inside you’ll find the full spectrum of family life: the loud bits and the quiet ones. Childhood freedom and first-day nerves. Holiday light and kitchen-table laughter. New siblings meeting for the first time, grandparents holding a whole history in a single glance, and those fleeting in-between moments that would be easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention.
And it isn’t just the photographs.
Each image is accompanied by the photographer’s own words – little glimpses into what was happening, what was felt, what was remembered, and why this moment mattered to the person who noticed it. Together, they turn this into something more than a gallery: a shared time capsule of connection, chaos, calm, tenderness, and truth.
No poses. Nothing staged. Just family life, honestly seen.
Inês Lima (Blackandlime)
Profile: Inês Lima (Blackandlime)
Website: https://www.blackandlime.com/
When I took this photo, I felt that warm little squeeze in my stomach, that feeling of “this is it”. After spending three days with this family, this image brought together the three things I believe make a photograph close to perfect: the moment, the composition, and the light. And of course, it reflects the natural, genuine energy of childhood – so that one day they can remember this freedom that carries them through such an innocent stage of life. This is, by far, my purpose. It’s what makes me love documentary family photography so deeply, for families and about families.
Nina TBerg
Profile: Nina TBerg
Website: https://www.nina-tberg-photographie.com
it is the only award I did win this year.
this image brings me back to our three weeks road trip to australia. we had an amazing family time.
Anna Meyer-Kahlen
Profile: Anna Meyer-Kahlen
Website: www.meyer-kahlen-fotografie.de
This is my favorite documentary family photograph of 2025 because it captures everything I look for in a real moment.
The children are completely themselves — playful, connected, absorbed in their own little world around their grandma.
Nothing is forced, nothing is performed; the moment grows naturally out of their relationship and shared trust.
The image shows humor, closeness and family dynamics all at once, without needing explanation.
For me, this is documentary family photography at its best: a fleeting, honest moment that could only happen in this family, exactly like this.
Afterlife afscheidsfotografie
Profile: Lucie van den Oever
Website: https://www.afterlife-afscheidsfotografie.nl/
This is my favorite image of 2025, as it captures every emotion a human can experience. This series also marks a milestone, winning its first award in the competition.
Sara Cardoso Silva
Profile: Sara Cardoso Silva
Website: https://www.saracardososilva.com/
What do we really dress for? That’s the question this photo awakened in me. We wrap ourselves in clothes, makeup, and masks to face life’s moments. Yet when emotion truly strikes, no costume can shield us from what we feel.
This image was captured during a Christening. Moments after the holy water touched the child’s head, the priest raised her before the congregation, as if introducing her to the Christian world she was now entering.
Nothing could have prepared her for that instant. Not the outfit, not the comfort of familiar arms. She simply surrendered to the rawness of her emotions.
And it is precisely this — these unfiltered, human truths — that makes me persist in documenting families.
Daniel Ellis Photography
Profile: Daniel Ellis Photography
Website: https://www.danielellisphotography.co.uk/documentary-family-photography
I love this photo because it’s pure chaos. I took it on the morning of my eldest son’s first day at school. It’s a different take on a first-day photo. He’s mostly ready to go and has been in pre-school before the summer holidays, but his younger brother can sense that something is different this time. They were both balls of energy, but our little one was literally climbing the walls. In the end, we were out of the house in plenty of time, and they were even both dressed properly!
Tiffany D. Brown Photography
Profile: Tiffany D. Brown Photography
Website: www.tiffanydbrownphotography.com
This image is my favorite of 2025 because it captures the essence of why I’m drawn to family storytelling — honest connection, emotion, and the beauty of real life unfolding. I was invited to photograph my friend, also a photographer, during her family’s Thanksgiving gathering. Her mom, pictured laughing, had returned after moving out of state, filling the room with warmth and familiarity.
For me, this frame holds everything I love about documentary family work — the unposed, fleeting moments that tell a family’s story far better than anything staged ever could. It’s a reminder that these everyday scenes, often overlooked, are the ones that matter most.
Black Vine Photography
Profile: Black Vine Photography
Website: www.blackvinephotography.com
This photo is from our family vacation this year — my pregnant wife holding our daughter at sunset. It’s a meaningful image for us because every evening, our daughter would point out a single bright “star” appearing beside the crescent moon as the sun went down. We started calling it her star. In this photo, I was able to capture that little star shining beside the moon, exactly the way she saw it.
Anthony Thornton
Profile: Anthony Thornton
Website: https://www.anthonythornton.com/
This family often waters the plants on their roof together as a unit. In this moment, before the watering part happens, mom looks on as her husband and two sons wait for her to fill the watering cans. You can’t see her face, but you can almost tell by her stance that she is relaxed and at peace while she has this moment to herself to observe her own family. While her husband monitors their two boys, the oldest son decides to test his father by climbing the railing on the roof. Dad points and sternly tells him to get down. This fraction of a second demonstrates to me the completely normal yet ever-present ebb and flow between chaos and calm in any family unit.
Dewi Koomen
Profile: Dewi Koomen
Website: https://www.dewikoomen.nl
This is an image I came across while going through my huge stack of unedited family photos. It’s of my grandfather and my little boy — a moment I had completely forgotten I captured.
My grandfather passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 97, and seeing him here, looking at my son with such quiet pride, touches me deeply. With more than 90 years between them, this simple moment feels even more meaningful now.
To me, this photo is truly special, and I know I’ll cherish it forever.
Daria Petrovic
Profile: Daria Petrovic
Website: https://instagram.com/Daria_petrovic_
My daughter learned to read this year and has been reading a lot – I love this image particularly because she’s reeding about vampires 🧛♀️ while looking like one herself.
Tine Knaepkens
Profile: Tine Knaepkens
Website: www.tinekphotography.be
A Day in the Life at my Grandma’s place.
It was an idea that started to take shape over the summer, and a month ago it finally happened. I had really been looking forward to it.
Three hours of slowing down, watching, composing, capturing.
Three hours of her life in pictures.
Three hours of simply being with her.
Three hours of savoring it all.
Three beautiful hours it were.
Emotional ones, too. The way she still cooks her own meals. Makes the most delicious soup. Cleans her apartment herself. With lots of breaks in between. Because I could see how quickly she gets tired. How much pain she was in, too. But a little rest, and then she continued. Admirable, at her 92 years.
Emotional also, seeing how lonely life becomes at 92. And she truly still has a social network, because it definitely mattered which day I came 😉 But it struck me.
Me, who doesn’t make enough time for her and who, at every family gathering, thinks “glad we saw each other again,” yet being there with her made me feel that it’s not the same. That I need to visit more often. To break the loneliness for a moment. To simply be there.
Emotional, too, because through my lens I saw my grandmother and my grandfather together again for a moment. My Grandpa, who has been gone for 33 years and yet felt so present right then. My Grandpa, who died when I was 10 and suddenly felt so close again.
Getting them together in one photo— I did a lot for it. I would do so much to be able to do it for real again.
It hit me. Right there. I ate the bowl of hot soup through silent tears.
Tabea Hörnlein
Profile: Tabea Hörnlein
Website: https://fotografietabeahoernlein.de
It’s the first picture I thought of looking back at this year. It’s a picture of our family vacation to North England and Scotland and it represents the feeling we all had at the sea – kind of cold and stormy, but we are light and free, fascinated by endless walks along the beaches visiting one castle after the other, packed in gum boots but our minds are flying through the sky.
Pollachik Photography
Profile: Pollachik Photography
Website: https://www.pollachik.com
Difficult to pick one photo but I love this one of my son tenderly holding a dead butterfly. For me it evokes the end of summer in the countryside and a memory of the joyful time spent outside exploring nature.
David McClelland
Profile: David McClelland
Website: https://www.davidmcclelland-photography.com/
This one is my favourite family image of the year because it came out of nothing more than a bit of play. No posing, no directing, just a child messing about with a toy and me trying to keep up. I looked through the tube and there he was, framed perfectly, with that curious little stare children have when they’re half in their own world and half watching you back.
It lasted a split second. The colours, the framing, the way his eye sits right in the centre… it all lined up by sheer chance. These are the moments I love in family shoots. Real and unplanned.
Your stories by Kim / Kim van der Weerden
Profile: Your stories by Kim / Kim van der Weerden
Website: https://www.yourstoriesbykim.nl
First of all, I chose this photo because it won an award, which already makes it very special. But besides that, I’m also in love with this image. It feels so wonderfully free. Wearing a princess dress on a climbing frame is already amazing, but the perspective makes it feel even more free somehow. Those little feet and hands… it truly captures the ultimate feeling of being a child.
Frederikke Brostrup
Profile: Frederikke Brostrup
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fotograf_frederikkebrostrup/
I love the composition and the stories…the fact that the boy obviously not are allowed to drink directly from the milk carton, and the father isn’t noticing it because he plays with the little sister. He didn’t see it before they got the photos…
When documentary photography is best, I think it will show the family moments they don’t notice when it is happening. In that way an image like this really is like looking through a key hole….
Annemiek Rockx Verwaijen
Profile: Annemiek Rockx Verwaijen
Website: https://annemieksfotografie.webnode.nl
This moment means fun after a competition. It’s not about winning, it’s about having fun and the learning process of it.
Jan Juc
Profile: Jan Juc
Website: www.janjucfamilienfotos.com
I’m always looking for moments that speak honestly about everyday life. This image does exactly that. It shows the intensity, vulnerability, and strength that come with raising small children — all unfolding at the same time.
What moves me most is the mother’s expression: a mix of gratitude and exhaustion that feels incredibly real. The scene around her reveals the beautiful chaos of family life and the quiet forms of support that hold it together. It’s simply life as it happened in front of me.
This moment stayed with me because it shows both the weight and the warmth of parenthood in one frame. That’s why it is my documentary photo of the year.
Laura Griffin
Profile: Laura Griffin
Website: https://www.lauragriffinphotography.com
Not only is this of a person and place that is very close to my heart, but for me this moment also encapsulates the joyful carefreeness, the creative imagination and the boundless energy of childhood.
Nathalie Berweger
Profile: Nathalie Berweger
Website: https://berwegers.ch/
This was a surprise moment when we suddenly realised that we can play a shadow game right behind our kitchen table. The sun only reaches this wall a few weeks a year. I ran to grab my camera since my big goal for this year was to take more pictures of my own family and to notice light. Even though my boys faces are hidden, you can still see the fun they’re having whilst playing with their dad. I also love the minimalistic colours and the golden tone of the evening sun. My bigger son wore this sports dress twenty-four-seven at the time so it’s a funny reminder of that season. Their little hands and how the little one imitates his brother always get me! I’m so thankful for photography to hold onto these moments and treasure them forever!
Fardo Dopstra
Profile: Fardo Dopstra
Website: https://fardodopstra.com
Anyone who’s ever dressed a newborn and tried to get a tiny hand with little fingers sticking out, through a little sweater sleeve, without hurting the baby, has been here. As I saw one of his mamas trembling, struggling to get the small wriggling fingers through, I knew I had to capture the scale of this precision job. I chose to fill the frame with her hands – which seem gigantic compared to the baby’s fingers and arm. This way, the focus is exactly on what the story is. I also like how it’s an anonymous image, yet so relatable. This image was a fave of mine right when I saw it.
Renske Zwaan
Profile: Renske Zwaan
Website: https://renskezwaan.com/family-stories-en
I think it happens in the life of almost every child: that moment when the mailbox becomes a gateway to wonder. A simple slot in the door, mysterious enough to suggest that the outside world can slip quietly inside. Often there’s that strange little brush, soft and ticklish to the touch, inviting curious fingers to explore. And then the irresistible question arises: what happens if you peek through? What might you see on the other side?
That’s what I love about this photo, how it gathers that entire world of wonder, exploration, and learning into a single frame. It almost pulls me back into my own childhood, to the times when I crouched down and did exactly the same thing, discovering the magic hidden in ordinary places.
Aurelie Lenoir
Profile: Aurelie Lenoir
Website: https://aurelielenoirphotography.com/
We were wrapping up the session with this family after spending over an hour at the beach. The little girl was soaked from jumping in the water and her dad gave her his shirt. It was such a sweet, playful moment: her joy and mischief, the look of love in her mom’s eyes…
To me, moments like this are the very definition of a happy childhood: being loved, being carefree, and knowing you’ll always be taken care of.
Not even five minutes later, she fell asleep in her mother’s arms as we walked back to the car.
Ana Backhaus Photography
Profile: Ana Backhaus Photography
Website: www.anabackhaus.com
I chose this as my favorite documentary photo of the year because it captures everything I love about the desert in a single frame.
The desert is full of layers and contrasts. There’s the incredible texture of the dunes—those endless ripples carved by wind that create this mesmerizing pattern across the sand. There’s a peacefulness and quietness to it that’s undeniable. But at the same time, standing there in all that open space, you feel incredibly free. This photo showcases exactly that contrast, and I love it.
Freedom is something I actively search for in my work. It’s what draws me back to the desert again and again. And this moment—my son running down the dunes with his arms spread wide—is exactly what everyone wants to do when they’re there. That pure instinct to run, to feel the sand beneath your feet, to let yourself go in all that space.
The desert gives you both: the peace and the freedom. And that’s why this image matters to me—it holds both of those feelings at once.
Karo Vitellaro Fotografie
Profile: Karo Vitellaro Fotografie
Website: www.karovitellaro-fotografie.de
This photo represents summer 2025 for me.
Christiane Raffeiner
Profile: Christiane Raffeiner
Website: https://kindundkamera.at
It is about the fleeting moments of Childhood,
the melancholy of growing up.
I am drawn to quieter moments, that make me feel.
Tenderness and skin.
Francesca Alviani
Profile: Francesca Alviani
Website: https://www.francescaalviani.com/
These are my 3 children interacting for the first time together. I see them and I think: everything it’s all right. They saw in the early morning for the first time their little new sister and they started to read her a book about planets. She was listening attentive. It was such an emotional moment. Three children together. It’s all about connection and family.
Sanïa Spiri
Profile: Sanïa Spiri
Website: https://www.saniaspiri.com/
This is my favourite documentary image of the year because it earned me my first award and was captured spontaneously during one of our most memorable family trips
Diana Feil
Profile: Diana Feil
Website: https://www.smileatdiana.com/
Because it’s just the most tender/precious father son moment I have ever photographed, I think. The way the little boy looks up to his dad….
Naomi Castenmiller
Profile: Naomi Castenmiller
Website: https://www.naomi-johanna.nl
For my son, this was a leap into the deep. A big jump. One he didn’t dare to take the year before. And during our summer holidays, suddenly he did it more times than I could count.
For me, this past year also felt like a leap. Choosing to let go of my previous job, with a little ache in my heart. To be able to spend my working days fully on my development as a photographer.
It felt like a confirmation that this photo — the one that symbolizes this choice for me — won an award.
Gaby Ermstrang
Profile: Gaby Ermstrang
Website: www.ermstrangfotografie.nl
I love this picture because everything (litterly) falls perfect in to place.
The colors, her little legs and the most fun that went in this moment. I love it.
Louise van den Broek
Profile: Louise van den Broek
Website: www.momentsinlife.nl
This is my favourite family photo of the year because it holds the whole story of this family in one frame. The parents are each in their natural rhythm – one playing, one creating – while the kids move through the space with their own personalities fully alive. There’s playfulness, tenderness, chaos, connection. Nothing posed, nothing forced. Just a home being a home, and a family being exactly who they are.
Rebecca Brennan Photography
Profile: Rebecca Brennan Photography
Website: www.rebeccabrennan.co.uk
This is my fav, because it was my first ever TIRF award, but more than that. It represents so many things, the chaos of life with kids, the fact that not everything is perfect, tidy and clean (not even images) it represents the humour of my life and the absolute joy of kids and family life… I took this image as part of a documentary photography course and doing the course has started to change everything…
Sven Hebbinghaus
Profile: Sven Hebbinghaus
Website: https://svenhebbinghaus.de
This photo captures the happiness of children. Running, laughing, having fun. Enjoying life. That’s why I like this photo so much.
Oonagh Casey Photography
Profile: Oonagh Casey Photography
Website: https://www.oonaghcaseyphotography.com/
This is a photo of my own little girl, take in April when the sun started to shine for the first time in months. She insisted on wearing her shorts because “It’s summer”. It reminds me of a happy time together in the gather when things were bright and warm and Mollie was wild and independent and happy.
Love Gets Sweeter
Profile: Love Gets Sweeter
Website: https://lovegetssweeter.co.uk/family-films
As a Mum of two, this is the image I wish I could have. That spontaneous cuddle photo, captured just before bed after a silly story…someone just happened to be there for. and it wasn’t Mum behind the camera, she’s ACTUALLY IN THE PHOTO (from someone who’s always the picture taker!)
Pamela Brady
Profile: Pamela Brady
Website: https://www.pamelabradyphotography.com
I love this photo because it captures a quiet truth about family life. My grandmother, in her 90s, rests in a child like way. She is now being cared for by the same hands she once cared for. A very tender reminder of how time moves and the strength of families bonds.
Jayne Nottage Photography
Profile: Jayne Nottage Photography
Website: https://jaynenottagephotography.co.uk
I have thought a lot about what image to submit. I thought of images with great composition, insane light, really deep emotion or ones where it takes you a while to notice something and then you are like….ah genius! but instead I have gone for this shot of my teenage girls. It doesn’t feel overly clever, or great composition but being a teen is a time of being insanely self aware but the absolute beauty of documentary photography is that you get to capture the every day as it unfolds. So I chose this capture as it caught them completely unaware, their fully present selves, just sheer joy and shared laughter and this makes my heart very happy.
Andrea Zampitella
Profile: Andrea Zampitella
Website: www.andreazampitella.com
This photo captures the pure, unfiltered joy of childhood—those carefree moments when a couch becomes a trampoline. The warm glow of the sunrise streaming through the window adds a magical touch, wrapping the scene in soft, golden light. Together, the playful energy and the gentle morning radiance create a snapshot of innocence, wonder, and the simple happiness found in everyday moments.
Natasha Rigg – Heirloom Films & Photography
Profile: Natasha Rigg – Heirloom Films & Photography
Website: www.heirloomfp.com
I find it more difficult to photograph my teen/tween without getting side-eye. This moment was pure bliss – for them, and me!
Juliette Fradin Photography
Profile: Juliette Fradin Photography
Website: https://www.juliettefradin.com
We were back home after a summer away and the kids were playing in the backyard. It was a very hot and humid summer day like we have in the Washington, DC area. We decided to cool down using the sprinklers. I saw the light hitting the water backlit and I captured my son “drinking” the water like he would “eat” the snow in winter. It screamed childhood moment to me.
Marisa Martins
Profile: Marisa Martins
Website: https://www.dayinthelifephotographer.com/
This was such a special session for a photographer friend — a DITL in the Azores last July — and it held an extra layer of meaning to be trusted by someone I deeply admire to document a Day in the Life. She brought me to the astonishing island of Terceira, an absolute dream, the place where she grew up, now carrying her beautiful baby daughter in her arms.
I knew how profound that moment was for her, and I felt a responsibility to translate it visually. I wanted to weave together the rough volcanic landscape, the delicacy of her baby’s skin, and the soft movement of a mother’s hair — a quiet dance of textures, strength, and tenderness. Moments like this make me feel incredibly lucky to do what I do, and perhaps that’s why I love this image so much.
Bobbi Barbarich
Profile: Bobbi Barbarich
Website: https://bobbibarbarich.ca/candid-family-photography/
For each family session, I strive to make a group photo that not only shows the family as a whole, but ideally reveals each of their personalities AND their role in the family… and has good composition. This one nailed it. Even the dogs. We can tell who each being is and how they contribute to the dynamic. It’s their favourite, too.
Square O Tree Photography
Profile: Square O Tree Photography
Website: https://www.square-o-tree.com/
During this shot, he suddenly decided he was a lion on a mission, crawling across the ground without hesitation. His parents didn’t stop him or worry about the dirt. They simply let him be himself.
I love this image because the freedom they gave him matched the freedom I gave the frame. Their trust in him mirrored my trust in the moment, and together it created something beautifully unforced.
Maria Montero
Profile: Maria Montero
Website: https://mariamonterophotography.com
I love the emotions on the picture. You can see it on every single person of this picture. Everyone together, enjoying the football and just having a wonderful time.
Erin L. Kirkbride Photography
Profile: Erin L. Kirkbride Photography
Website: https://erinlkirkbride.com
This is a simple backyard image of my kids playing on a hot spring day. I love the simple symmetry of it. It’s one of many images from a personal ongoing project documenting my kids upbringing in the Rocky Mountains, Canada. I’m always fascinated with how different my kids upbringing is than to my own experience – I grew up in a small beach town in Australia.
Alex Benyon
Profile: Alex Benyon
Website: https://www.alexbenyonphotography.co.uk/
I love this photo because it’s such a cool little moment from our holiday. The shadows, the lines, and my daughter’s silhouette make it feel way more artistic than I meant it to be. I didn’t take many ‘professional’ family photos this year, but this one feels special, like a quiet reminder of how magical those small holiday moments can be.
Kara Fotografie
Profile: Kara Fotografie
Website: www.karafotografie.nl
This is what holiday means to the family. Useing whatever mother nature provides and enjoy it.
Susanne Kromm Fotografie
Profile: Susanne Kromm Fotografie
Website: https://dokufamilie.de
This image has shaped my year 2025 in a way that is difficult to describe. A year does not only have happy moments; the difficult ones also leave their mark. Emotions go in all directions.
Alison Lapczuk Photography
Profile: Alison Lapczuk Photography
Website: https://www.alisonlapczuk.com/
Because I took this photograph purely for myself. The colours are pleasing to me. Looking back on it now, it makes me think to stop and smell the roses or something. I think I love it because it was purely instinctual, I took only one photograph. I love the nostalgia of that.
Rem Schotsman
Profile: Rem Schotsman
Website: https://www.millionfaces.nl
To me, it captured the essence of family; sleepy heads, pajamas, story time on the couch.
Alena Pesavento
Profile: Alena Pesavento
Website: http://www.alenapesavento.ch
For me, this image epitomises joie de vivre and childlike creativity. Four kids (two of them mine) had fun jumping from the wall into the stacked swimming rings. It catapulted them forward, their legs sticking out in all directions. For me as a photographer, it was paradise, although it was mentally very challenging: should I intervene because I was afraid they would break all their bones? Or should I enjoy this absolutely unique opportunity and just shoot away? Fortunately, I decided on the latter. The picture is therefore also a reminder for me to be a little more relaxed and less worried from time to time. 🙂
Nicole Moss
Profile: Nicole Moss
Website: https://nicolemossphoto.com/
This is my favorite because it has been my most crazy, chaotic year ever and when I see this photo I want to be this kid. I want to hide out where I think no one can find me and have a moment to myself.
David Kastelan
Profile: David Kastelan
Website: https://davedocuments.com/
I’ve been attempting to put myself into more of my documentary photos with my son with varying levels of success. This image is a rare example where I feel that I captured both of us in the moment as it felt. We often play a game where I feed him gummie bears and he has to guess the colour without looking. I feel that we’re simultaneously tricking each other in the act in order to keep the game going. I’m craving the giggles, while he craves the sugar. All the while I’m holding onto the idea that I’ll forever be able to carry him on my shoulders, knowing full well that this isn’t the case.
Michelle Molnár Photography
Profile: Michelle Molnár Photography
Website: https://www.michellemolnar.com
This image stays with me because it holds everything I believe documentary photography is meant to preserve.
A few weeks earlier, I photographed this family during a beach day. When the grandparents came to visit, the mom invited me back to document an ordinary evening at home. They played Yahtzee, laughed, talked, and then the parents slipped out, leaving the kids with their grandparents. Dinner turned into a simple “caveman” meal of ribs, eaten together as the sun poured through the window.
What stopped me was the quiet magic of it all. The way the light streamed in. The gentle rhythm of the moment. The archway perfectly framing this small circle of connection. Nothing staged. Nothing rushed. Just love moving naturally between generations.
This photograph later became a gift from the mom to her father for his birthday, now in his 80s. Knowing that makes it even more meaningful to me. One day, these children will look back at this image and remember not just what happened, but how it felt. How safe they were. How deeply loved.
It’s a photograph of an ordinary day, which is exactly why it matters.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ll know this isn’t just a roundup of “best images” – it’s a reminder of why documentary family photography matters at all.
Because these are the moments that slip past fastest: the phases, the quirks, the rituals, the way people love each other when they’re not performing. And one day, it’s not the technical perfection that will matter – it’s the feeling that’s been preserved.
A huge thank you to every TiR:F member who contributed their favourite frame (and the words that came with it). This one is a real privilege to share.
