An American Family: The DarkTopo Review

It’s hard to review Pam Spaulding’s An American Family (National Geographic's Focal Point Press, $35) without using the words charming, touching, or poignant. And though it is all of those things, the importance of this book is much greater, and much deeper.

In 1976, John and Judy McGarvey answered Spaulding’s challenge: Allow a photographer into their lives for one year, their first year as parents, and the first of their child’s life. One year turned into thirty, and one child turned into three.

What Spaulding presents—with the consent of the McGarveys—is a record of an American family in the late 20th century. Child rearing, vacations, careers, holidays: The book could be one long brochure for the American dream, or one exceptionally well-rendered family photo album.

The most compelling aspect of this book is its duration: We see the eldest son David’s first Pledge of Allegiance in kindergarten . . . and his return from a tour in Iraq 24 years later. All three children appear as awkward, braces-laden teenagers . . . and successful young adults. And we see in black and white how John and Judy’s hair color begins to occupy a much higher position in the tonal scale.


Photo by Pam Spaulding. Copyright 2009, National Geographic. David McGarvey, center, says the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time in kindergarten. September, 1982.


Photo by Pam Spaulding. Copyright 2009, National Geographic. The family welcomes David home from a tour in Iraq. John, who rarely shows emotion, held back tears when the crowd at the airport broke into applause. November, 2006.

Considered in a larger context, Spaulding presents much more than a record of a family. The bookjacket says that the images here capture American life for posterity, and that’s true, but there is also the fact that American life in this time period enjoys the highest standard of living the world has ever known. We can look at it as simple Americana, or we could speculate on a wider scale: This is the best it is has ever been, a world where there are two parents, school plays, trips to the Grand Canyon and the teenagers get their own cars, complete with sunroofs. Never before in history has life been this good.

Perhaps a little too good. Though the marketing compares the project to a reality show, it has none of the unforgiving surveillance we saw on The Real World. We see trials, hardships, and sadness, but we see nothing alienating, and very little failure. Perhaps the McGarveys are perfect people, or perhaps Spaulding is only sparing them embarrassment. . . but would so careful a journalist edit her work for such a shallow agenda?

Considering what is presented, and what is not, I think it's likely that Spaulding's edits make a purposeful statement about American life. As in any good documentary project, the content of that statement is left largely to the interpretation of the viewer. Is Spaulding telling us “this is how it is,” or “this is how it should be?”

In any event, she tells us “this is how it was.” We may speculate whether these images show us the whole truth, and if so, what meaning we may take from it. But in the end, after three decades of the poignancy and charm in a family’s life, “how it was” is a pretty noble thing to document.