The Brown Sisters

Nicholas Nixon (American, b. 1947). THE BROWN SISTERS, 1975. Gelatin silver print. Museum purchase. Photography collection.

The photograph collection has just purchased The Brown Sisters, a group of 30 photographs by Boston-based photographer Nicholas Nixon. The series, begun in 1975 and increased annually by one image, depicts four sisters, one of whom is the artist’s wife. Only a few complete sets of this work exist, and it is rare for one to come on the market. Curator of Photographs Alison Nordström describes the series as “a bridge between the modernist portrait and post-modernism’s fascination with the archive. The pictures remind us of the family snapshot, the passage of time, and the relationship between photography and memory.”

George Eastman House was the first museum to exhibit Nixon’s work, in 1971. His early architectural studies were featured in the exhibition New Topographics, the formative 1975 exhibition that many see as having defined late 20th-century landscape practice.

Nicholas Nixon (American, b. 1947). THE BROWN SISTERS, 1994. Gelatin silver print. Museum purchase. Photography collection.

The Brown Sisters will be on display from October 22, 2005 to February 5, 2006, along with examples of Nixon’s early work.