The Brown Sisters, in forty portraits

October 3, 2014 3:18 PM

Who are these sisters? We’re never told (though we know their names: from left, Heather, Mimi, Bebe and Laurie; Bebe, of the penetrating gaze, is Nixon’s wife). The human impulse is to look for clues, but soon we dispense with our anthropological scrutiny — Irish? Yankee, quite likely, with their decidedly glamour-neutral attitudes — and our curiosity becomes piqued instead by their undaunted stares. All four sisters almost always look directly at the camera, as if to make contact, even if their gazes are guarded or restrained.*
posted by Toekneesan (15 comments total)

I love this series so much.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 3:27 PM on October 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

Dallas?
posted by benito.strauss at 3:28 PM on October 3, 2014

I kept expecting to get to a picture with only three of them in it.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 3:29 PM on October 3, 2014 [3 favorites]

I kept expecting to get to a picture with only three of them in it.
posted by the agents of KAOS

You will, you will.
posted by Decani at 3:38 PM on October 3, 2014 [3 favorites]

Previously, although I think there are a few more photos than when this was posted last year. The format is certainly easier to navigate.
posted by koeselitz at 3:44 PM on October 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

Beautiful.
posted by dougzilla at 3:50 PM on October 3, 2014

And by "Dallas?" I mean: Those cities say a lot. In Boston, Allston near Boston, out to the Cape, outer Boston suburbs, up to New Hampshire, then back to the shore-side north of Boston. Lives lived all over New England, not stuck in one city, but not leaving the general area either. Of course, they make you wonder how they decided where and when to take the pictures. Often when all four were visiting their parents, probably. Parents retired to the Cape? I'd bet Allston was them getting together at one of their places, though. Parents wouldn't live in Allston. Maybe they've lived all over the world and only come together in New England for the annual photo.

It seems knowing the cities raises more questions than it resolves. But I still have to wonder why, that year, Dallas.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:51 PM on October 3, 2014 [4 favorites]

I would guess that some of the non-Massachusetts cities are them getting together at family weddings or funerals.
posted by tavella at 3:56 PM on October 3, 2014

I've always loved this series - the affection the sisters have for each other seems very tangible and you get the sense that getting on the wrong side of any one of them would be mean being on the wrong side of all of them. The power, confidence, and elegance they convey remains undiminished over time.
posted by helmutdog at 4:08 PM on October 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

I have a Nixon story. My now ex-husband and I were living in Boston in 2000 when we saw an ad Nixon had put in the paper seeking couples to photograph for a project he was working on. He offered to pay the subjects, I think it was $75, or let them keep the pictures. We thought it'd be fun to get professional photos so we called and he came to our tiny Beacon Hill apartment, lugging his large-format camera and a black cloth that went over it, up four flights of narrow stairs. It was a chilly spring day and my ex and I both wore black pants and a black turtleneck. We dressed alike back then. Nixon didn't spend a lot of time warming us up, just said we should sit on the living room couch as we do when we're watching television. He did ask if we would like to undress, we said no. He took ten pictures of us, replacing the 8x10" negative each time. We received the prints a short while later and didn't like them at all. They've remained in their sturdy cardboard envelope ever since. I don't know what happened to the couples project, there was no book or exhibition that I am aware of.
posted by Dragonness at 4:24 PM on October 3, 2014 [13 favorites]

I've always loved this series - the affection the sisters have for each other seems very tangible and you get the sense that getting on the wrong side of any one of them would be mean being on the wrong side of all of them. The power, confidence, and elegance they convey remains undiminished over time.

I have siblings. We are not very close. This series has always moved me. Depending on the day it makes me happy, sad, envious.

... mostly happy for them, and wishing I'd been amongst them.
posted by salad at 1:40 AM on October 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

I love how, when they're younger, they're all standing somewhat apart, and as they age, there are almost no photographs where they're not all touching in some way. Just terrific photos.
posted by xingcat at 6:32 AM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

I kept expecting to get to a picture with only three of them in it.
posted by the agents of KAOS

You will, you will.
posted by Decani

Not necessarily. This series has five participants.

It is a striking series of photographs. My sisters and I get along, but we are rarely in the same place for long enough to think about posing for a photo together, let alone an annual picture. I feel a bit envious, but mostly fortunate that I get a glimpse of this family's consistency. The photographer is part of that.
posted by TORunner at 6:33 AM on October 4, 2014 [7 favorites]

I had a sibling, and I am a somewhat professional photographer. This series and others like it never fail to break my heart.
posted by nevercalm at 5:39 PM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

I wasn't familiar with this project until this story, but the extra links FB popped up when someone linked it there says the Modern in Fort Worth has a full run of these prints. Now I very much want to see them live, as it were.
posted by immlass at 6:38 PM on October 4, 2014