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by Mary Motley Kalergis (Author)
With This Ring: A Portrait of Marriage - Revised and Updated Second Edition
By Mary Motley Kalergis
Marriage is where many family stories begin-not with children, but with a choice. A moment, sometimes impulsive or sometimes hard-won, when two people decide to build a life together.
In With This Ring: A Portrait of Marriage, award-winning documentary photographer Mary Motley Kalergis travels into the heart of that choice and beyond, pairing striking black-and-white portraits with unflinching, often tender interviews. Couples from across America share what brought them together, what sustains them, and what nearly broke them-speaking with candor about love, change, resilience, and the daily work of building a shared life.
Originally published by the Chrysler Museum of Art and now reimagined as the first volume in Kalergis' five-part Building a Family series, this edition preserves the honesty and intimacy of the original while framing it as the opening chapter in a larger story about birth, motherhood, adoption, and parenting.
In these pages, you will meet newlyweds, long-married partners, blended families, and couples who have endured illness, tragic loss, and incredible joy. Some stories are raw, others luminous-but all are real. Together, they form a testament to what it means to commit and to remain committed over time.
This is not a book about weddings. It's a book about what happens after the vows-when love must grow up, bend, endure, and sometimes reinvent itself. For anyone interested in the human truths behind marriage, these images and voices offer something rare: a clear-eyed, compassionate portrait of the everyday courage it takes to build a life together.
Perfect for:
- Anyone curious about the human realities behind the idea of "happily ever after"
- Couples at any stage of their journey
- Readers drawn to oral history and documentary photography
Keyword: Marriage photography; Documentary photography books; Marriage stories real couples; Oral history of marriage; Black and white portrait photography; Love and commitment stories; Building a family; Anniversary gift book; Real life marriage journeys; Couples photography book
