Realism not happiness!

Taking photos of serious issues you expect to be confronted with scenes of pain and suffering. Scenes that you think will infuse your images with realism and greatness. You soon realise life is not always like that but when your confronted with happiness things get confusing. I think photographers can be wary of smiles, being part of the quintessential family album picture, there’s the danger of the image being labeled as cheesy or cute. Doubts continue to roam around my head as to whether such an image can have validity, when this is supposed to be serious photography, about serious issues, for serious people. How can laughter be part of real life?! For now I’ll sit on it, but I suppose if these people insist on doing it I’ll have to let one or two sly grins slip through. (If anyone wants to give some serious critique over the next fortnight while Adam and Olly are away I’d really appreciate it).