The Brown Sisters: Forty Years of portrait photos by Nicholas Nixon

Photographer Nicholas Nixon has captured the portraits of his wife and her three sisters for the past 40 years, leading to an amazing photo project called “The Brown Sisters: Forty Years”.

At the beginning of his career as a photographer, Nicholas Nixon was visiting the family of his wife somewhere in New Canaan, Connecticut. The photographer asked the four sisters to take their photos and a good portrait shot has resulted in order to immortalize the beautiful summer of 1975.

One of the sisters graduated in 1976, so the whole family gathered around to celebrate the moment. Nicholas Nixon has thought that it would be a great idea to take a photo of them while standing in the same order as in the previous shot.

The results were pleasing to the photographer, so he and the sisters have decided to replicate the pose every year from now on. Here we are, about 40 years later, and an amazing project has also been turned into a book called “The Brown Sisters: Forty Years”.

Amazing portraits of four sisters captured during the past 40 years by Nicholas Nixon

This photo project has been available to the general audience for a while now. Additionally, it has been displayed at galleries and exhibitions across the globe. Now, it has finally reached a “complete” version, so to speak, and it has been turned into a book.

“The Brown Sisters: Forty Years” will be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, which will also publish the book in question.

All photos have been captured in black-and-white only and the order of the sisters has stayed the same. Speaking of which, we would like you to meet, from left to right, the Brown sisters: Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie.

The wife of Nicholas Nixon is Bebe, who is always the third one from the left, as stated above.

“The Brown Sisters: Forty Years” is a documentary of what it is like to grow old

Today’s people are always concerned about how they look and what they wear if they know they are going to be photographed. However, this project teaches us that we should be as natural as possible and try to approach a photo shoot in a “casual manner”.

Bebe says that the sisters have never talked about their outfit, so they have never attempted to see this as a job, instead choosing to prepare for the photo shoot just like for any other normal day.

The four sisters are said to be a great example of endurance, but you can also see “The Brown Sisters: Forty Years” as a documentary project that shows what it is like to grow older.

One thing that you may notice is that they are becoming more and more united with each year passing by. More details about the author are available at Fraenkel Gallery, while more photos and details about the project can be found at NYT’s website.