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October 25, 2013

The Brown Sisters

“The Brown Sister’s” by Nicholas Nixon is displayed at the Modern Museum of Art in Fort Worth. It’s what you could call a photo timeline. My first impression when seeing the artwork was, “Wow! This is amazing.” I could not believe just how long, and stretched out everything was. I thought it was very interesting to see how all the photographs were all in a specific order. In 1975, Nicholas Nixon began photographing his wife Bebe and her three sisters every year. The colors of the photos were all in black and white; I think Nixon did this for a reason, maybe to represent past or change. An interesting aspect that stood out to me was the stance of Bebe and the three sisters in each photo. I noticed that is was very repetitive, he did that because he wanted you to see the full change each year. The mood in each photo is very serious they never smiled, maybe just a smirk. The color of the photos were all in black and white, some darker than others. I wish he would have used color so that you could see a full change of color, history, and aging. The form in each photo is different because the different angles. They do stand in the same order every time which also helps for the viewer to understand that some things change but family always sticks together. The way Nixon captured each photo was pretty interesting from the fact some shots they were posing and others look natural. All the photos were shot outside, so there were shadows. Even in some photos you can see Nixon’s shadow in the image. Imagine if the photos would have been in color they would be pretty bright but since they are edited in a black and white we don’t see the full potential of the lighting. This art piece means a lot to me, for the fact that they stayed together for 37 years to take every single picture. I feel the artist’s intention and purpose of the timeline series offers a compelling look to both portraits and familial relationships. These images expose a visual record of not only the relationships between the Brown sisters, but also the sisters’ relationship with Nixon and his camera. From the first most recent portrait, we witness the sitters’ growing familiarity with the camera, as well as the effects of a lifetime of events