The family photo has a position for everyone except the person taking it.

Someone is always outside the frame. The family photo records everyone but the person who arranged them, adjusted the angle, and asked for one more, and that person is often the same person year after year. Their contribution is exactly the thing that removes them from the record. Being the one who makes something happen and the one absent from it is an ordinary and rarely mentioned arrangement.

At the next occasion, hand the camera over for one shot so the usual photographer is in it. More broadly, ask who in your family is consistently doing the arranging and never appears in the result. Putting them in the frame is small and it is not only about photographs.