Better known for capturing the likes of Bowie and Radiohead, photographer Pat Pope now gives ordinary families the moody treatment usually reserved for rock stars and TV celebrities

Pat Pope has formidable rock photography credentials. He has three images in Q magazine's 100 Greatest Rock'n'Roll Photographs and his portrait of Dido hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

In the 20-odd years since he photographed the then relatively unknown Jarvis Cocker and Richard Ashcroft for the University of London student magazine (while himself a student at the London College of Printing), Pope has been commissioned to capture some of the biggest names in rock. As well as David Bowie, Jimmy Page and Radiohead, he has photographed actors and film directors, writers and politicians. He even snapped Tony Blair on a train to Bristol, a few months before he became prime minister.

Catherine Mars, 48 and her son Aidan, 10, get the Pope treatment. Photograph: Pat Pope/Alt Family ­Portraits

For the past few years, though, life has been a bit less rock'n'roll: while he still does some portraiture for the consumer press, Pope now works from his home town of Tunbridge Wells as a "jobbing" photographer. "Digital photography is a wonderful thing, but it has killed the careers of many photographers by making it possible for anyone with a camera to become 'professional'," he says.

Looking around for something new, Pope realised that the high street family portrait, "the ubiquitous white background and faux-relaxed big smiles", was long overdue an overhaul. And so Pat Pope's Alt Family Portraits, and more recently Alt Business Portraits, were born, giving non-celebrities the photographic treatment normally reserved for pop stars and actors.

"They have a slightly surreal, TV or film-poster quality, as they are reconstructed after the event rather than taken in one hit," Pope says.

I loved Pope's Alt Family Portraits as soon as I stumbled across them on Facebook, and commissioning one seemed a great way to commemorate my husband's 50th birthday. Pope's beautifully constructed photographs are the antithesis of cheesy, and in ours, everyone – even the dog – looks mean and moody. The fact that we didn't have to smile was especially appealing for the children. They think the finished picture is cool, although nine-year-old Patrick is upset that Tibs the cat isn't featured as, unlike Bobby the bird (on 12-year-old Billy's shoulder), she refused to sit still. We look, I think, like an evil version of the Waltons, or a modern-day Addams Family.

The Lampitt family: (left to right) Amelia, 17, parents Sally and Brett, both 50, Elliot, 19, and Henry, 22. Photograph: Pat Pope/Alt Family ­Portraits

Darker, and possibly more creepy is Pope's photograph of the Lampitt family, from Battle, one of his first Alt Family Portraits. "We'd never had a family portrait done, as we find the standard high-street fare a bit cheesy," says dad Brett. "But Pat's portrait is something else. It's like a cross between a formal Victorian portrait and a poster for Six Feet Under. We didn't really do anything to prepare for it – just let Pat put us in position. I'd only just got off the train, so it's pretty real and certainly not very glamorous. I love it because it's not always a bed of roses in our house and we're not all smiling all of the time. So this is a portrait in the true sense of the word."