The Brown Sisters. Forty Years

In August 1974, the photographer Nicholas Nixon made a group portrait of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters, Heather, Mimi, and Laurie. He did not keep the image, but in 1975 he made another portrait of the four—who then ranged in age from fifteen to twenty-five—with an eight-by-ten-inch view camera, whose large negatives capture a wealth of detail and a luscious continuity of tone. Nixon and the sisters have gathered for an annual portrait ever since.