Inheritance

Turning a lens on her kin, photographer Andrea Stern captures the visually rich and psychologically intriguing world of a wealthy Jewish family in New York. She chronicles momentous family gatherings―weddings, bar mitzvahs, funerals―as well as everyday events, such as visits to a grandmother in Palm Beach and weekend trips to Long Island. In the midst of bustling celebrations, she often focuses on individual family members, zeroing in on the tension that arises as individuals attempt to carve out separate identities in the midst of family entanglements. At first, the book's title alludes to the photographer's privileged upbringing, but the word 'inheritance' reverberates in other ways as one contemplates, in these alluring, candid portraits, the myriad traits and influences that are passed on from one family member and one generation to the next.