©Dee-dee Drewrey, Thanksgiving at Aunt Reta’s, Wisconsin

American Thanksgiving is a day where families in their varied incarnations come together to chew on turkey legs, eat pumpkin pie, and watch football. For many Americans, it’s a favorite holiday because it’s all about food and family (and well, football) with no gifts to buy and house to decorate. It’s also a time to spent with rarely seen relatives allowing us to examine the warts and odd behaviors of those with similar DNA. Today’s exhibition is about those photographs that might not make it into the family scrapbook, but are perhaps more real than the picture perfect memory.

And because it’s “thanks”giving, I am taking this opportunity to give thanks to the incredible Lenscratch staff: Sarah Stankey (who compiled today’s post), Grant Gill, Clay Lipsky, Pauline Gola, Jonas Yip, Noelle Swan Gilbert, Val Patterson, and Patty Lemke who all donate their time and energies with no financial compensation, as a way to give back to our community. And also big thanks to our wonderful guest editors and to our readers and contributors. I am so appreciative of your time and support.  Enjoy the day and thanks for submitting!

©Finn Schult, Family Trip, Banff, Alberta, Canada

©Laura Husar Garcia, Taste Test, Chicago, IL

©Franziska Rieder, Hide and Seek, Brandenburg, Germany

©ZoePerry-Wood, Bennett’s Bath, Cataumet, MA

© Eleni Onasoglou, Cupid and Psyche, Syros, Greece

©Philip LePage, Still/Life (Traces of my Childhood), Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada

©Marco Barbieri, Untitled, Hlinsko, Czech Republic

© VirginiaMallon, Preparation, Woodhaven, NY

©Tatum Shaw, Sunday, Rome, GA

©Jessica Aicholtz, Scrabble at the White House, Richmond, VA

© Tomas Vaisvila, Big House

© Will Russack, Chloe, Paris

© Emilie Richardson, Mogadishu to Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN

© Lisa Marie Stevens, Brothers, Chicago, IL

©Torsten Pauer, jaunting with my demented mom, Schleswig Holstein, German

© Rachel Woroner, My Mother Up North, Golden Valley, ON, Canada

©Matthew Cronin, My Father And The Fish, 2012, Georgetown, MA

©Paul Morris, Steph and Katie, Barend, Scotland

©Jone Vasaitis, Sister, Dear Sister, Lithuania

©Anastasiya Lazurenko, Being a Father, Kinburn Foreland, Ukraine

©Zsuzsa Darab, HOME, Harsány, Hungary

© Judi Iranyi, My brothers last portrait, Heddesheim, Germany

©Gerry Giliberti, Family, Springs, NY

©Chuck Ärlund, Sisters, Murfreesboro, TN

©Urszula Kluz-Knopek, Shortcuts, Ustroń, Poland

©De Kwok, Ordinary Day Los Angeles, CA

©Antonis Giakoumakis, religiousness, a village in Rhodes

©Ann Van Epps, A Break From Playing, Savannah, GA