The Brown Sisters, Truro, Massachusetts
Nicholas Nixon
American, born 1947
2010
A 2010 gelatin silver portrait by Nicholas Nixon that quietly records the intimacy and cumulative passage of time among four sisters.
Their faces are pressed close in a single plane—unflinching, detailed, and varied in expression, from direct, steady gazes to a closed-eyed repose—so that you feel both the physical proximity and the slow work of aging.
As part of Nixon’s long-running Brown Sisters series, the photograph uses serial portraiture to make visible family bonds and the passage of time, influencing later documentary and fine-art approaches to portrait series.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
17 15/16 × 22 1/2" (45.5 × 57.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Family of Man Fund
Accession
605.2010
Palette
Exhibitions
