Kelsey McLemee
Partin Family Reunion-1.jpg

Partin Family Reunion

 

PARTIN FAMILY REUNION Print Design

The front side of a red table tent with a black and white photo of a couple and the back side of the table tent with a short message about the Partin family.
 
 

For the 100th Annual Partin Family Reunion, I wanted to solve a problem that I’d noticed developing. Rather than mingling with one another, the 200+ family members who attend each year had begun to plant themselves at tables with only their immediate family, eat, and then leave.

I dug up thirty family photos from every decade of the last hundred years, assigned each one its own table tent — no captions, no context — and spread them throughout the event.

Relatives weaved between tables to see all the photos and guess when they were taken. Of course, the oldest generation had all the answers! They wound up in the spotlight and happily recounted family stories all night.

 
 
Eleven vintage photos of people against a red background.
A red poster with text 'Welcome' and an old photo of a large family.
A man and woman looking at a table tent while eating dinner in a crowded room.
Two buckets of tea with red labels that read 'Unsweetened' and 'Sweetened' on a beige background.
 
 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a southern event without tea buckets. I included large labels to ensure no one accidentally chose unsweetened tea.

 
Two versions of the same photo of a woman, one with damage and one that has been repaired.
Two versions of the same photo of a woman, one with damage and one that has been repaired.
Two versions of the same photo of a woman, one with damage and one that has been repaired.
 

This project was also the perfect excuse to retouch the more faded and damaged photos in the collection.