The Brown Sisters, Boston, Massachusetts 2012

Nicholas Nixon made this photograph of the Brown sisters in Boston, Massachusetts. The tonality of the image is soft, like a memory. The way the light renders the women’s faces and hands creates a beautiful study in contrasts, revealing the intricacies of age and kinship. The physical details of the image–the texture of their skin, the lines etched by time, the intimate embrace–become almost tactile. Look at the hands wrapped around each other. The way the light catches the wrinkles and veins tells a story of shared experience and deep connection. It’s as if the photograph itself is aging along with its subjects, a process of constant becoming. Nixon returned to photograph the Brown sisters annually, building a life-long study into the passage of time, just like other artists such as On Kawara and his ‘Today Series’, who explored themes of temporality and documentation in their work. Through its enduring nature, this image embraces the beauty of change, and the ambiguity of existence.