This year, Joshua Ets-Hokin celebrates twenty-five years of family photography in San Francisco; he also won SFGate's coveted "Best of the Bay" award for his work.



Family photography may seem like a tough sell in an era when almost everyone has a digital camera and a photo sharing account. But the fact that we're awash in images is what makes Ets-Hokin's photography so distinctive. His photos reveal intimate moments in family life: the toddler in mid-pirouette, the child day-dreaming on an unmade bed, the teenage girl perched tentatively on the edge of adulthood. At a time when life seems to be moving at warp speed and each day is a blizzard of sensation, Ets-Hokin's photos capture these singular family moments before they vanish into the past.



What makes Ets-Hokin's photos special? For one thing, he uses film and a dark room (his is the only professional commercial photography studio in San Francisco that has an on-site lab) and shoots in black and white. He also takes his time, limiting his photo sessions to a maximum of two per day, and conducting at least two sit-down meetings with families before he takes a single photo. Ets-Hokin gets to know the families he works with and the results are striking: his images are dynamic and full of feeling, they stop time -- for just a moment -- and last forever.