Heather Brown, Mimi Brown, Bebe Brown Nixon, Laurie Brown Tranchin, East Greenwich, Rhode Island

Nicholas Nixon

1980 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

What was to become the project of a lifetime started as a family photograph. In the summer of 1974, Nicholas Nixon made a portrait of his wife, Bebe Brown, with her three sisters. Unsatisfied with the result, Nixon made another attempt the following summer, during the next family gathering. This would be the first picture of a continuing series, for the photographer and his four models decided to create the occasion for making a similar portrait each year. The Brown Sisters photographs are, in Nixon's own words, an "annual rite of passage": "one picture we all liked led to a whim, which led to an idea". This ritual tells all about passage of time and aging, as well as the deep mystery of blood ties.

Artist

Nicholas Nixon

Date

1980

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Funds from various donors and matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1981