Picture time
This sort of thing always intrigues me.
It’s a series of photographs of the four Brown sisters, taken every single year for the last forty years. My guess is that the sisters are very roughly my age, and it’s a sobering series to look at. I’m just going to reproduce the first one and then the most recent photograph for your perusal; you can study the rest at the link:
For many people, one of the hallmarks of aging is weight gain, which can make a person look even older, and a woman more matronly and frumpy. The Brown sisters seem to be on the naturally slim side; I don’t see a whole lot of weight gain in the photos, and yet time has not spared them.
Perhaps they live an exceptionally outdoorsy life without much sunscreen. Perhaps makeup—which all four seem to have eschewed for their entire lives—would help, especially as the bloom of youth wears off.
Maybe some of it is where the photos have been taken. Outdoor natural light is okay if it’s not direct sunlight, but the latter is harsh and especially unforgiving. In fact, as time progresses in the photo series, sometimes it seems to go backward and the women look younger in a later photo than an earlier one, which I attribute to the vagaries of lighting.
But much of what I notice has to do with emotions. The commentary at the article talks about the physical closeness of the sisters as the years go on, and the assumption is this expresses an emotional closeness. And perhaps it does. I don’t have sisters myself, but I don’t perceive so very much closeness when I look at the photos. It’s as though the closeness expressed by the touching is overriden by some other coldness I sense.
Perhaps it’s the New England thing. In general, having lived here for many years, I have to say the trend is for people to not be as touchy-feely-warm as those in more southern climes (and nearly all climes in the US are more southern).
But I wonder whether my perception about the sisters’ closeness is actually because of the complete absence of smiles in the photos. It’s not only the light that’s rather harsh in these photos, the affect is as well.
This is a decision the women must have made early on. We will not smile! Why that is I don’t know. Perhaps they wanted to defy convention and expectations for portraits. Perhaps they wanted to exhibit a gravitas despite their youth. Perhaps they realized they were making a document for the ages. Perhaps they’re just not a naturally smiley bunch. Perhaps the photographer (the husband of one of the women) suggested the seriousness. Perhaps they wanted to do something different. Well, they succeeded.
Why am I harping on the passage of time and the advent of aging in the photos? It’s almost unavoidable because of the format; you might say it’s the series’ theme. We know virtually nothing about the women other than their sisterhood, their New England setting, their clothing, and the fact that we see in stark highlight the passing of time reflected in the human face and form.
One of the ways in which age announces itself isn’t just lines and wrinkles and sags in the face and body, it’s also that instead of looking more like each other over time, the sisters resemble each other less as they grow older. Time etches a different tale in the face of each, and although we can’t read it clearly, we can see that each has become more distinctly herself, with her own private and public sorrows and joys marked on features that were once smooth despite their solemnity.
On Seeing Weather-beaten Trees
Is it as plainly in our living shown,
By slant and twist, which way the wind hath blown?
The one on the far left was either outside a bunch or a smoker.
I saw this a few weeks ago and my wife and I took our time looking at the progression of age over the years. My supposition is that the sisters tried to recreate the first photo with similar expressions in lined up in the same sequence photo art, which it became.
I see a classic beauty in the sisters that comes through over the years and a kind of a knowing wry, grin on their honest looking faces that do show their age and experiences and stories that haves shaped and have molded each woman.
Was there any mention of their age (I looked, but didn’t see any)? I’m curious, because I graduated from high school in ’76, right around the time the first photo was taken.
They variously smile in some but not others.
Since the pictures are deliberating composed, I would step back from concluding that they’re revealing of the genuine nature of the sisters other than that’s how they look and their preference a factor. With the option to choose, throw out, and reshoot, their choices take prominence.
…instead of looking more like each other over time, the sisters resemble each other less as they grow older. Time etches a different tale in the face of each, and although we can’t read it clearly, we can see that each has become more distinctly herself…
Great insight.
I’ll be charitable and say that I feel like I’m back in New England. I must be around the same age as this bunch, because the first photo feels very familiar. I was out of high school in ’74
I guess we never think of how we’re ageing until we look at the photos. Recently, I saw some pictures of a high school reunion someone had gone to. Luckily, there were names attached to the pictures, otherwise I would have never recognized some of these folks had I passed them on the street.
I have one sister, who got married in 1985, and a few years later had a major falling out with the family. She and her husband moved to another state and I didn’t hear from her for many years.
I thought she was being ridiculous and pretty much wrote her off.
After our parents died in the early 2000s I got a letter from her, and we started exchanging Christmas and birthday cards again.
This past October I traveled to Maryland for my uncle’s funeral. He was the last of my father’s siblings. I had also gone to other funerals there during the past decade, as they died off one by one.
This time I was met by a couple who seemed to know me. I assumed that I must have met them at a prior funeral, but I didn’t remember them. I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you. What are your names?”
She punched me in the arm and said, “I’m your sister.”
I honestly didn’t recognize her.
Like Neo and many others, I couldn’t help but be drawn into these pictures. Unlike Neo, I didn’t feel any chilliness, but then all of my family came from Norway.
Also, once again, the internet let my curiosity slip too easily into something close to voyeurism, and I ended up knowing too much about these women’s lives. Oddly, that didn’t change how I saw the photographs.
Below I’ve copied a little more information from The Museum of Modern Art
(http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1534)
In August 1974, Nick Nixon made a photograph of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters. He wasn’t pleased with the result and discarded the negative. In July 1975 he made one that seemed promising enough to keep. At the time, the Brown sisters were 15 (Mimi), 21 (Laurie), 23 (Heather), and 25 (Bebe). The following June, Laurie Brown graduated from college, and Nick made another picture of the four sisters. It was after this second successful picture that the group agreed to gather annually for a portrait, and settled on the series’ two constants: the sisters would always appear in the same order–from left to right, Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie–and they would jointly agree on a single image to represent a given year. Also significant, and unchanging, is the fact that each portrait is made with an 8 x 10″ view camera on a tripod and is captured on a black-and-white film negative.
Love this
If a portrait is to have artistic or monetary value, a big smile is almost always wrong, right? The person who took these pictures is probably thinking of them as art.
We are conceived. We evolve. We die. The fortunate will discover meaning through the chaos.
In the first photo, they look like they have a bad case of the owls.
I have seen my friends age over the years and while most are very well preserved, they definitely are — aging. It is a fascinating and hard thing to see. Even if I think most of us look good in spite of it, the fact is, we are getting older and it shows.
There are some people who look better as they age, or seem to, and those are usually the ones who were not beauties in their youth. Somehow, aging does not diminish them as much and they actually sometimes grow in attractiveness it seems. Or maybe compared to their peers, they are now just as attractive instead of less so.
All of these women seem to have been exceptionally attractive in their youth. Now, they do have dignity and some still retain a beauty but it is diminished certainly. It is shocking what the years do, but on the other hand, the alternative is worse! I mean, the alternative to aging. And, yes, over time one values appearances less and what is inside more. And, you can’t get by on your looks, but on what is inside and how you comport yourself in life.
My three brothers and I complete the aging comradeship of youth. I wish we had pictures of us all together, but we were too cool for that. We all wanted to be so different from each other, yet ended up mostly the same.
some of yawl are kinda tough. I’d say they don’t dye their hair, spent a lot of time outdoors, and look great. in addition, one of them was at least 4 years older than the others unless there were twins or trips…
Funny how perspective has an effect on what we view. I am five years older than the oldest of these lovely women and I see no problem at all in the aging process. Of course using the analogy of trees, some of us put a few rings around the trunk as the years go by.
I was told years ago that the face you have in your youth is the one you were born with but as you pass fifty years of age your countenance reflects your character and outlook on life as the wrinkles of smiles and frowns settle in.
Happy New Year to all as we look forward to putting one more year on ourselves.
Old Texan:
I think that, generally speaking (although certainly not in every case) women have more trouble with the aging process in terms of looks.
Neo: “women have more trouble with the aging process in terms of looks.”
It balances out. Youthful feminine beauty, coinciding with peak fertility, is our most valued physical characteristic.
Adorable. Absolutely adorable. Only suggestion from this ‘Coot? Smile more, Ladies!!
I would guess by their eyes and their body language in the earlier series the pictures weren’t their idea of a good time. They look to me like all young people posing for a picture that wasn’t their idea – even so, the closeness hasn’t spawned any warmth.
As time goes on, they look more resigned to the task, but I don’t see much joy in any of their eyes. I get the impression that all four are very independent women, who are also very much alike, but may not spend a lot of time with each other.
That’s probably totally wrong, and may be an atrifact of the photographer’s choice of photos – they may be laughing and hugging in others, but there’s never much happiness in the eyes.
I found it fascinating that each one of them almost suddenly looked old. The wrinkles and sagging seen to come out all at once for each woman. To me, for me, it seemed more gradual, but then I look in the mirror every day, not once a year. I am curious as to what age each woman was in the picture when old age first reared its head.
Lee:
I think that in general people tend to age suddenly. Everything’s okay for a long time, and then suddenly it’s not.