The Brown Sisters, Truro, Massachusetts
Nicholas Nixon
American, born 1947
2009
A gelatin silver print of four women posed tightly together, part of Nicholas Nixon’s long-running photographic series that quietly measures aging, kinship, and constancy.
You’re struck by the frontal, intimate proximity—faces nearly touching, nuanced shifts in expression and posture, and soft, high-contrast light that renders freckles, lines, and jewelry as delicate markers of time.
By photographing the same sisters with a consistent composition over decades, Nixon turned a domestic portrait into a sustained meditation on time, memory, and the possibilities of documentary portraiture.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
17 15/16 × 22 1/2" (45.6 × 57.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
1270.2009
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
