How to Make Sense of Family Photos: Proxemics

In the last article, I shared tips on how to read body language when looking through your family photos. This time, I’ll expand on that topic by introducing you to proxemics and how they come into play when looking at photographs.

Proxemics is a scientific field concerned with the spatial distance between people in various social situations. Because spatial distances vary significantly from one culture to another, I’ll use examples common to North American culture. 

There are four main categories used to identify spatial distance:

Intimate: this involves direct physical contact, such as kissing, comforting, and protecting. However, intimate distancing is also applicable when playing contact sports, such as football, rugby or wrestling, when the athlete is physically close to their opponent.

Personal: this ranges from 1 to 4 feet and is typically recognized as maintaining an arm’s length of distance. Personal distance often includes physical contact, such as holding hands, having a hand on someone’s shoulder, or even hitting another person if they get too close to you (for example, if someone invades your personal space).

Social: this distance ranges from 4 to 12 feet and is commonly used for more formal business and social settings such as an office Christmas party or community gathering.

Public: Maintaining a public distance of 12 to 25 feet or even more is practiced to avoid making physical or direct eye contact with others. This distancing is common in public spaces such as shopping malls, airports, and public walkways.

After reviewing these categories, you can see how these definitions would vary greatly between cultures. Social and public distances would be significantly less in cultures with higher population density. These spatial distances will even differ from small towns to cities within North America. For example, when shopping for a heavily discounted sale or waiting in line, it’s common for people to be much pushier in cities than in smaller towns.

In addition to reading a subject’s body language, recognizing the spatial distances between family members in old photos will give you a better understanding of their relationships. This is why having a basic knowledge of proxemics is useful when looking at photographs.

Proxemics is similar to body language in that a subject’s positioning will subconsciously or intentionally offer clues to help you make sense of your family’s photo albums. For example, displays of authority, ownership, and possession are relatively easy to identify. You’ll notice that when someone leans against their car or home, they show a pride of ownership. And, when a parent has their arms wrapped tightly around their children, it’s often a sign of possession.

Of course, proxemics also refers to the spatial distancing between people. So, the next time you look through your family photos, you may notice that two siblings never stand beside each other. Or the mother is closer to her children than her husband. While in different families, the mother and father appear to be strongly united, and their children seem distant or detached from them.

These are just examples of the types of dynamics that you will begin to detect when you start looking for clues into your own family’s history.