those old, awkward photos

From Suzanne Ma (hat tip: C-J), an article which starts with AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com as a springboard...

Matching mullets, regrettable tattoos, metal mouths and goofy grins.

Such long-lost looks were never meant to be seen by anyone except those flipping through the pages of an old family album or studying the photo frames on the fireplace mantel.

But now, Americans who grew up long before the Internet opened private lives to the world are digging up dusty boxes for photos to share on Facebook and other sites — sometimes to the chagrin of family members and schoolmates appearing in group shots.

Most people sharing photos from their past are simply having fun, and it can even serve as some form of collective healing....

But some people do care, especially when someone else has uploaded an unflattering photo or video.

Los Angeles screenwriter Mike Bender, who runs AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com devoted to such photos from the past, said a woman who shared a family photo later wrote to say that she was drunk when she submitted it and that her family was upset with her. Bender removed the picture immediately, but it was already all over the Internet....

A similar site, LaserPortraits.net, celebrates the awkward school portrait — specifically, the ones from the 1980s and the '90s with the fluorescent lasers in the background....