Alison Radcliffe By Jack Radcliffe

...one of Radcliffe's extended portrait series is Beppi and Steven Isbert and their children, Gunner, Ivana, and Strom, a family that he began photographing in 1992. ...Beppi and Steven, who met while Beppi was in college studying art, married shortly after she graduated, and have had three children since. In his description of the family, Radcliffe has noted that Beppi and Steven share a passion for dress-up and that they also “admit they have come from self-described dysfunctional families, which has determined their strong marital bond, their desire for a large family, and the way they relate as husband and wife so compelling.” His portraits of them, whether in their bedroom with their son Gunner or of Beppi and Gunner blowing bubbles, are tender renderings of a non-traditional, loving family. Through his insightful and sensitive interpretations, arrived at by strategic and patient photography, Radcliffe brings this non-traditional family into our yen of understanding and makes us consider them with compassion.
Perhaps among the most intimate of Radcliffe’s subject matter is the continuing series on his daughter Alison, whom he has photographed since her birth, “in the tradition of a new parent.” While his photographs of Alison began as a separate and private body of work, the process of documenting her over the years moved him to a new level of awareness with his photographic approach. He “developed a passionate interest in human relationships and capturing intimate moments in the lives of family and friends,” focusing on the strength of relationships, and often “using personal environments to amplify those connections.”