Family is a portrait of the inhabitants of Galesburg, Illinois, the childhood home of American photographer Chris Verene. Like many anonymous working-class American towns, Galesburg is floundering in economic despair, with a vulnerable and fragmented community, discarded by government and often each other.

Verene has intimately chronicled the lives of his extended family in Galesburg for over 25 years, but the passing of time is camouflaged by the crude cycle of social repetition. Children become parents, characters are lost, and new generations are introduced, but amongst the domestic clutter and economic comfortlessness, the evidence of a quarter of a century between Verene's first and last photographic exposure is muted: a family trapped in a timeless vacuum.

Family is often uncomfortable in its candor and intimacy, disheartening in its stark reflection of poverty, alienation and broken family units. The images are, however, imbedded with an unsentimental hope, and every photographic plate seems to will a condition of survival, a resilient desire for a more promising future.

In the accompanying essay Chris Verene writes: "These images forecast a greater good- the power of the human being to survive as human. I see in my heart that we can be a guiding light to others, through sharing the simple stories that bind us together".

In Family, Verene has created a tragically honest and revealing album, a work void of pretence and cynicism. Family is unashamedly compassionate, with warmth and belonging resonating from each tender encounter.