We Are Family
Family is more than just a bookstore on Fairfax. It's, well, a family.
By David Jacob Kramer
Photographed by Sarah Soquel Morhaim
(L-R) Sammy Harkham and David Jacob Kramer in front of Family with a window instillation by Sumi Ink Club.
I started Family with high school friends from Sydney, Australia, now husband and wife Sammy and Tahli Harkham. Our inspiration came from hanging out after school in the now-deceased circuit of small Sydney record stores, where one could see a band for free, browse zines and books, absorb the music staff played and maybe buy a 7" (because that's the extent of a splurge at age 15). But you'd end up listening to that little record over and over all week, before and after school, and it would percolate in your head all day. There was a feeling when you walked into the record store that whatever you picked up might change your way of thinking. It's this quintessen-tially adolescent feeling that Family hopefully pays tribute to. We fill the place up with the ideas we love and hope that the people who come in get psyched on them, too.
Through Family's activities we've developed friendships with many of our heroes. The people on the following pages are some of them, all living in Los Angeles. We picked them the way we pick everything at Family, as a varied bunch but with some certain, yet elusive quality in common.
Family: 436 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA. Familylosangeles.com
I started Family with high school friends from Sydney, Australia, now husband and wife Sammy and Tahli Harkham. Our inspiration came from hanging out after school in the now-deceased circuit of small Sydney record stores, where one could see a band for free, browse zines and books, absorb the music staff played and maybe buy a 7" (because that's the extent of a splurge at age 15). But you'd end up listening to that little record over and over all week, before and after school, and it would percolate in your head all day. There was a feeling when you walked into the record store that whatever you picked up might change your way of thinking. It's this quintessen-tially adolescent feeling that Family hopefully pays tribute to. We fill the place up with the ideas we love and hope that the people who come in get psyched on them, too.
Through Family's activities we've developed friendships with many of our heroes. The people on the following pages are some of them, all living in Los Angeles. We picked them the way we pick everything at Family, as a varied bunch but with some certain, yet elusive quality in common.
Family: 436 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA. Familylosangeles.com
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