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Nicholas Nixon is best known for his work with the Brown sisters. This work consists of him annually taking a portrait of the four brown sisters, one of who is his wife Bebe, over the course of thirty-four years, starting in 1975 and going through 2008 (most recent found). Nixon found inspiration for this series as a result of seeing pictures displayed in the Brown family home, originally meant for Christmas cards, taken by the girl's parents every year since Bebe, the oldest, was born. In Nixon's images the girls are always in the same order which allows you to easily compare the girls as they age gracefully over a third of a century.
One thing I admire about this series is that the seasons change for the girls so you not only get to see them at different ages, but also under different circumstances. Also I enjoy the way you see the relationships change year after year within the group some seeming closer at different times in their lives.
From Nixon's work I would like to take away the naturalness of the subjects as well as the raw emotion. The girls never seem to be told to smile and only do so in a few images, showing the emotion that they were genuinely feeling at the time the photograph was taken. This same unemotional prepped attitude seems to carry on in the rest of Nixon's work. The directness of the gazes coming from his models only add to the emotional pull of his images.
The work Nixon does of other families and small groups carries the same feelings that the collection of Brown sister images do. The direct semi emotionless gazes seem to penetrate off the page. THIS is something I would like to carry over into my own work. I also enjoy the scatteredness of his subjects in the work below. I feel it adds depth/movement to the images.
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