Awkward Family Photos: You Belong in a Museum

The California Heritage Musuem, located in Santa Monica, features several rooms of artifacts from the state’s early days, as well as new work from local artists. And now, it also houses an exhibit devoted to an Internet meme: Awkward Family Photos. The material for the exhibit is drawn directly from the blog of the same name, which creates the curious experience of walking through a presentation that visitors could easily see online.

And therein lies the fun. To see photographs that are not only the work of amateurs (mostly), but also hilarious and sometimes bawdy, displayed in the hallowed, almost sacred space of a museum exhibition hall is worth the price of admission ($10). The fact is that family photographs are almost always awkward, by definition, meaning that as you laugh at the exhibit, you know at some level that you could easily be laughing at yourself.

Or the president. (Photo not included in exhibit. But it should be.)