The Brown Sisters: Photographs In Time
A photographic series of four sisters by Nicholas Nixon, a portrait photographer married to the eldest of the four sisters, is now in its 31st year of chronicling the passage of time and its effects upon both the physical and psychological shape of Heather, Mimi, Bebe and Laurie Brown. The idea for the series, titled, simply, "The Brown Sisters", began when Nixon took the first group photo in 1975 upon his marriage to Bebe Brown, then another the next year to commemorate the college graduation of another of the Brown sisters. The collection took on a life of its own from there.
Nixon now has a fascinating photographic visual study on the nature of time and its impersonal influences spanning just over 3 decades. The series of 31 photographs are still on-going ("I intend to keep this one up until I drop, or all of them are gone," he said"), and have been featured in exhibitions from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to its present home in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
"All the photos are the same size -- a little less than 9x10 inches -- and have simple wooden frames. They show the women side-by-side, usually wearing informal clothes, looking straight ahead . . . The sisters are lined up in the same order from left to right: Heather, Mimi, Bebe, Laurie. With few exceptions, the setting is outdoors on a lawn or a beach, and in natural light . . . No matter how many exposures he makes, Nixon selects only one to represent the women each year."
Art critics point out that the series is more than just a gimmick -- it's a glimpse into shifting cultural trends and the quiet maturation of sibling bonds. In some shots, the sisters are physically stiff with one another, while in subsequent photos, they're holding each other close. One curiously striking photo from 1992 shows one of the sisters pregnant, while another lays her hand carefully upon her womb, and all of the photos show the women moving toward less differentiated stylistic definitions.
Michael O'Sullivan at The Washington Post had this to say about Nixon's series: "The temperature of Nixon's photos of the Brown sisters straddles the documentarian's detachment and the emotional intimacy of a family member. They are neither entirely cool nor entirely hot, but somewhere in between . . . in the end, it is not the Brown sisters we end up seeing on the wall, but ourselves."
You can find selected images from Nixon's "The Brown Sisters" here at the Zabriskie Gallery online.
OFF TOPIC:
I think it's time to buy some stock: "Shares of the biotech company (Palatin Technologies Inc.) jumped 20 percent earlier this week after word got out about (their) new sex drug for women."
OFF TOPIC 2:
Thanks to Ala at Blonde Sagacity for nominating Homocon.com for Best LGBT Blog at Wizbang's 2005 Weblog Awards. But, uhm, she forgot to include my URL in her nomination . . . *sigh*
I'll never be Prom King, now.
Comments
I made your name a link...so he could just click instead of cutting and pasting...AND you made the final cut!!! CONGRATS! ;)
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Homocon sez:
Thanks, ALa! I knew there was a reason I link to your blog! And I was just telling the BF tonight at dinner about your Male Stripper bachelorette party experience in Philly . . .
Posted by: ALa | December 4, 2005 6:14 PM
This work was displayed in the Cruel and Tender exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, 2003. I must admit , when I first entered the room where they were displayed, I wasnt really interested (I was more intent on moving on to the Baltz, Friedlander, DiCorcia, Mikhailov and Eggleston). Although I did return to the room and study the photographs more intently. They made quite an impression on me, and I left thinking they were one of the highlights of the show.
FYI:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/cruelandtender/
Posted by: Gut Feeling | December 21, 2005 4:46 AM