Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie were between 15 and 25 years old when Nicholas Nixon began photographing them. From 1975 to 2022, the American photographer captured an annual portrait of the Brown sisters, never missing a year, creating one of the most important series in contemporary photography. The result—48 black-and-white images documenting the ageing of these four women (one of whom is married to the photographer)—will be on display from 16 November at the Cascais Cultural Centre (CCC).
“Nicholas Nixon – Coleções Fundación MAPFRE” marks the first major retrospective of this acclaimed photographer's work in Portugal and the largest ever held worldwide. It’s also the first time the entire Brown Sisters series is on show. “What captivates and puzzles in this series, caught between documentary objectivity and emotional intimacy, is the rhythm within the repetition. Each photograph gains depth and meaning as it joins the others, and it is within the series that it acquires its full power”, explains Carlos Gollonet, chief curator of the Fundación MAPFRE Collection and curator of the exhibition in Cascais.
Among the more than 200 photographs on display at the Cascais Cultural Centre—most of them black-and-white portraits captured with large-format cameras—visitors encounter emotions such as love, happiness, suffering, intimacy, the passage of time, and solitude. The Boston and New York Views series, photographed between 1974 and 1975, focuses on urban scenes, while in Porches (1977-1982), The Elderly (1984), People with AIDS (1988-1991), and Couples (2000), the human figure and its emotions take centre stage.
The exhibition, running until February 16th 2025, also includes photographs Nixon took of his own family: his wife Bebe and their children, Sam and Clementine.
Av. Rei Humberto II de Itália (Cascais). 16 Nov-16 Feb. Tue-Sun 10.00-18.00. €5.