The Brown Sisters, Brookline, Massachusetts 1999

This image shows us four sisters in Brookline, Massachusetts, brought together by Nicholas Nixon's lens. It's a photograph of the everyday, rendered in black and white, like a charcoal sketch. I can imagine Nixon framing them, thinking about how to capture their relationships, their individual selves. The grainy texture reminds me of early film experiments, where capturing reality was both science and art. See how one sister rests her hand on another's shoulder? Gestures like that speak volumes. It's subtle, but it’s there in black and white, no frills. Nixon reminds me of other artists who use seriality, like Bernd and Hilla Becher, but with a family twist. It’s the kind of project that gets under your skin, makes you think about time, family, and how we see each other, and it echoes through art history, inspiring new ways of seeing. It’s this conversation that keeps art alive.