20 Totally Awkward Family Photos from the 1970s
By | August 25, 2022
It’s hard enough to get the entire family together on the same date, at the same time and in the same place to take a family photo. Couple that with the challenge of making sure everyone is thinking clearly, on their best behavior and a willing participant and the fact that each person has their own idea of what they want to exude for the camera. Sometimes families get out of sync on these fronts and well…
That’s right… these pictures seem to reach an entirely new level of awkwardness!
source: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/GettyImages)
What in the world were we thinking? The '70s was a time of pushing traditionally normal limits. Everything from fashion, political, moral, musical and socially accepted standards were being challenged. At the time, it was all the rage to go out and jump on the bandwagon for the latest craze. Looking back now, however… well, let’s just say that more that a few of us have some regrets. Even more unfortunate is the fact that a lot of it was captured on film for all of eternity.
It could be safely said that every family has that “one” relative; we all know what that means. No family is perfect, and those imperfections are all the more obvious when they are captured by the camera. That’s right… the camera doesn’t lie! Below you will see some of the craziest and awkward family photos from the groovy era.
A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. Well, in the case of some of the pictures shown below, all the words in the world couldn’t begin to explain or make sense of what you see. It’s almost a toss-up between the bad hair and clothing choices to the subject matter and what people thought would be nice to commemorate.
This is a family photo from the groovy era that is a classic example of a good thought gone bad. Even though this photo is clearly posed, it still must have been a nightmare to put together, and for what? Hopefully everyone included here had a good time taking the photo and, you know, had a good laugh after everything was said and done.
Talk about awkward… Two of these family members are wearing heavy, outside coats and... that is an opossum… in the family photo! Nothing beats the thousand yard stare of the kid in the red who's clearly terrified of being mauled by that opossum. This must have felt insane at the time, but hopefully everyone had a nice laugh when it was all said and done.
And you thought your family portraits were awkward? These three are in a close race for the MOST awkward person in the photo. To be fair to mom, it's not easy to corral a wild animal, and that cat looks like it wants to take the head off the photographer. If we have one note for these folks when he find a time machine it would be to switch up the colors. Change the wall paper or get a couch that doesn't blend in like camouflage. Switching things up would make this at least 10 percent less awkward.
It’s a little difficult to pick out where the hair stops (Mom & Dad) and the background begins. I think the Groovy era let this family down. As odd as the matching hair color is we have to give a HUGE shout out to the two kids in matching leather jackets. They may look like they just left auditions for a stage musical of The Road Warrior, but it's honestly super cool that their parents let them go full WWF for their family portrait
The only thing more awkward than the accordion in this family photo is possibly the family chicken! We have to imagine that if you're bringing a chicken to a portrait studio that it's well behaved. If not, the cleaning fee for this photo alone must ave been astronomical.
Honesty has always been the best policy. This little girl was definitely being honest about how she felt about being in this family photo and Dad is a close 2nd… SORRY, Mom... awkward!
Years ago, we didn’t have the luxury of the digital photo to decide if we wanted a retake. We proudly posed and waited for the film to be developed only to find out that, well… we may have missed the mark. The only problem is that while we want to forget, we can’t! Even if the photo gets stored away for safe keeping, it usually rears its ugly head at some point.
source: awkward family photos
Many people consider their pets a part of the family but there are just no words for this family photo! Actually, here are a few more words: We absolutely love how much this guy loves his cats, and it puts a smile on our face to know that he risked life and limb to get them to behave so he could have this snapshot on his refrigerator for the rest of his life. Just because a family photo is awkward doesn't mean it can't be sweet.
Although this is an awkward photo, it probably captured the true essence of this family dynamic! I must say that I am sure they are not alone; just unlucky enough to be caught on camera.
The hair… oh the hair, ladies! No worries though, Dude looks like a proud peacock… even without any hair!
If this isn’t just the happiest family photo, I don’t know what is. The funny thing is that this photo may even have made it to their friends and family on a holiday card! Unfortunately, if that was the case, it will potentially be around for many years to come.
These pictures don’t even scratch the surface of the awkward family photos floating around out there. Don’t be too quick to judge, though, because I’m sure you have some of your own!
You know what? We really like this couple. They're happy and they're dressed up in their smartest outfits, it just looks like there's something a little... off? It's almost as if two different mice ran across the room at different angles, drawing the attention of this couple right as they were taking the photo. It's a shame that digital photo technology didn't exist at the time because we're sure this couple would have loved to taken a second stab at this snapshot.
This isn't your standard family photo and that's what makes it so darn awkward. There's so much to take in with this photo; the giant bottle of white wine, the tiny satin short, the grandma slamming that glass of vino, it's a perfect encapsulation of life at the end of the '70s. It's likely that if the photographer had picked a moment one second in the future in one second in the past that they would have snapped a more friendly and less awkward photo, but that's what makes this photo so good.
source: awkward family photos
This is a stone cold awkward family photo classic. There's so much to love about this photo, but our favorite detail is how lovely the mother looks cradling her baby. Her hair is on point, she's got a great smile, and she's ready to show off her lovely family, unfortunately her husband didn't really get the memo. He looks like the photographer just told him that his childhood dog wasn't sent to a farm. It's brutal.
If we had a time machine we would jump back to a Christmas party at this family's house just to see if this awkward photo was hanging up on the mantle.
Grandma was clearly ready to take this photo, everyone else not so much. We put the onus for this awkward photo directly on the photographer, he could have easily gotten everyone to make a nice face for their photo so they didn't look like someone just pulled a live skunk out of a bag in front of them.
To be completely honest this is less an awkward family photo and more of an awkward family ad, but we just had to share it with you because it's completely unhinged. Obviously there's the weirdly unclothed couple relaxing beneath a blanket made of shag carpeting with a cat, that's enough to make sure it's posted here, but then there's the very '70s feast that's laid out in front of them.
What would you want to dig into first while you lounge in the buff with your love, corn on the cob, a giant croissant, what looks to be potato salad, or some gingerbread men? There's no wrong answers here folks.
Folks, let's get into this supremely strange wedding photo. You can see what's weird about it, we can see what's weird about it, but why does it exist? What was the thought process behind saying, "You know what would be cool? A photo of my wife bursting out of my chest like the Xenomorph from Alien. Let's make that happen so we can hang it on the wall and use it in Christmas cards ASAP."
That may not have been the exact thought process but we can't imagine why a couple would have this printed up unless they just decided to have a goof.
As far as awkward family photos go it's actually pretty normal, or at least it's normal until you take a look at that kid's hair in the back. It wouldn't be so awkward for this youth to have a fun little hair flip if he weren't completely matching his mother. He's really caught in the amber that is the family photo from the 1970s, we hope that he figured out his look later in life. You know, like his little brother who looks like an absolute stud in that truly insane polyester shirt.
It takes something special to make a superbly weird family photo, but this family managed to do it. From the name tag on the mother to the *checks notes* chimpanzee dressed like Santa Claus. Unlike many of the photos included here we totally get why this snapshot exists. Why wouldn't you pose next to a monkey in a Santa suit? That makes total sense to us, we just really wanted you to see this totally wild snapshot. Hopefully this family (and everyone covered here) is doing well and living a much less awkward life than they are in these photos.
