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The beautiful awkwardness of Awkward Family Photos.com is now a book -- what creators and authors Mike Bender and Doug Chernack call "America's ultimate family photo album." I spoke with them just before it hit last week's New York Times bestseller list about their year of living -- immediately, successfully -- awkwardly.
Awkward Family Photos launched last year, when co-creator Bender noticed himself in an awkward family ski trip photo at his parents' house. He showed it to Chernack who said he had his own family material to contribute. Concluding that awkwardness and discomfort were better shared, they set up the site, began posting photos and calling for submissions. A friend posted the link on his Rhode Island radio station website -- a station that happened to be affiliated with Clear Channel radio.
"It was a very weird situation, where radio was kind of creating the traffic," Bender said. "It happened in a matter of two to three days, we went from ten hits to a million hits."
The immediate and enthusiastic response happens, they say, because most people can relate to the material, like it or not.
"The idea is tapping into something that is relatable and universal for everybody," Bender said. "Everyone can relate on some level to having an awkward family moment."
And while the site and book poke gentle fun at families, the authors say it is meant in fun and solidarity.
"We're not putting photos up there to just rip on people," Bender said. "We believe that awkward is a cool thing and we're celebrating it. We're all kind of putting ourselves out there and laughing at ourselves."
Their favorite photos are of holidays, with vacations a close second.
"We get so many good holiday photos," Chernack said. "Families are together...it's a time of year when awkward photos are most abundant. And there are so many good vacation photos. You're a kid, you're stuck with your family, you can feel the tensions."
Book offers were rolling in by June, while the pair handled the joys and pain of managing a viral pop culture sensation. They were completely overwhelmed, Bender said. The site kept crashing. It took them two days to figure out how to set up a Facebook page.
But they soldiered on, and soon began to envision a book. Their editor Suzanne O'Neal from Three Rivers Press made an immediate impression by submitting an awkward family photo -- from her family.
"We loved that," Bender said. "She just got it."
The book is no repurposed and packaged website, the authors say. Of the 300 photos in the book, 200 have not been seen before. There is also a "Behind the Awkwardness" section that explains the stories behind some of the more curious photographs.
"We just wanted to make sure it was really different from the site," said Chernack. And of the most awkward of awkward photos, Bender says, "You think, 'What is going on in that photo? How did that photo come about?'"
This section is different from the "Stories" section on the website, that contains gems like the Awkward Family Itinerary for a child's first birthday party and a very popular Thanksgiving Letter that they say they tried to include in the book but couldn't get permission.
The book also includes a section of confessions from portrait photographers -- the Sears and Olan Mills variety -- who responded to an ad on Craigslist and talked about what Bender and Chernack call the "conspiracy" to put children and families in "1950s poses," in hopes of better sales. Think those wooden fences and strobe effects were a coincidence? Think again.
Awkward Family Photos receives about 200 submissions per day, on what Chernack says is an honor system that the person owns the photo and has the right to share it. Permissions for the book were a different, more complicated story. The pair worked for months with their very small staff to track down permissions from everyone featured in the book.
"I was faxing contracts to a person in Latvia who had access to a fax machine once a week," Bender said. "We had no idea what we'd signed up for."
Many people featured in photos on Awkward Family Photos and in the book have embraced the role, with many even showing up at signings. One man featured with an unfortunate stain on his pants in a holiday photo has come to be known even beyond the site as "The Dribbler."
"He actually signs his e-mails
