37 Years Of The Brown Sisters. Four Sisters Photographed Annually From 1975 – 2012.

the brown sisters photos series IIHIH

Nicholas Nixon, who teaches at Massachusetts College of Art, is one of the most celebrated American photographers of our generation. Among the most compelling of his series of photographs are the portraits he has made of his close-knit family which, taken over time, explore the nature of long-committed relationships. His Brown Sisters series features an ongoing sequence of celebrated portraits of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters; Heather, Mimi and Laurie.

37 Years Of The Brown Sisters

Taken annually, beginning in 1975, the unpretentious black and white portraits of the Brown Sisters reveal gradual changes in their appearances and shifts in their relationships over the past 37 years.

37 Years Of The Brown Sisters
above: the first formal portrait of the four sisters in which Heather was 23, Mimi was 15, Bebe was 25, and Laurie was 21

Nixon says of the project “I really try hard to make the pictures as interesting formally as I possibly can. One of my clear visual tricks is that I like open sky, cause I love to see the shapes of their heads, and I like to play around with the intervals in between them. I take probably a dozen each year. They tell me what their favorites are, and what they dislike. But then I choose. I try to be as open with what they say as possible. In fact, I love to know what they think. Being an only child, it was really gratifying and lovely to be embraced by this family. There’s still a ground water of affection, and support. I look back at these thirty-some pictures and it’s like they’re of my sisters. I can feel myself getting old with them. And I’m part of them; they’re part of my love.”

Using a large eight-by-ten-inch view camera positioned at eye level, he always photographs the women in the same order from left to right: Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie. And will continue to do so.

The Brown Sisters by Nicholas Nixon from 1975 through 2012:

1975
brown sisters 1975

1976
the brown sisters 1976

1977
1977 brown sisters

1978
photographing the brown sisters 1978

1979
the brown sisters over the years

1980
brown sisters in 1980

1981
brown sisters in 1981

1982
1982 brown sisters

1983
portraits of four sisters over the years

1984
photographing the brown sisters

1985
brown sisters 1985

1986
1986 photo Brown Sisters

1987
the brown sisters photo project

1988
1988

1989
1989 photo of the brown sisters

1990
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 1990

1991
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 1991

1992
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 1992

1993
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 93

1994
1994 Nicholas Nixon brown sisters

1995
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 1995

1996
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 1996

1997
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 1997

1998
photographing the brown sisters

1999
brown sisters over 30 years

2000
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters

2001
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 2001

2002
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 2002

2003
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 2003

2004
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 2004

2005
Nicholas Nixon brown sisters 2005

2006
2006 Nicholas Nixon brown sisters

2007
37 Years Of The Brown Sisters

2008
37 Years Of The Brown Sisters

2009
37 Years Of The Brown Sisters 2009

2010
37 Years Of The Brown Sisters, 2010

2011
2011 from 37 Years Of The Brown Sisters

2012
37 Years Of The Brown Sisters

information and images courtesy of the following sources: MoMA, The National Gallery of Art.

UPDATE: As you would expect, by 2015 he completed 40 portraits of The Brown Sisters, celebrated in this beautiful book here.

Nicholas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, Forty Years
Nicholas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, Forty Years

Nicholas Nixon has now had multiple books of this project published at various yearly intervals.
He is represented by The Fraenkel Gallery

Nicholas Nixon Photography Books