Nicholas Nixon

Friendly, West Virginia

1982

photograph | gelatin silver print

The Brown Sisters

Gelatin silver print, 17 7/8 x 22 3/8" (45.4 x 56.9 cm)

Nicholas Nixon is known for his portraiture and documentary work in the use of a large format camera with 8 by 10 inch film.  Whenever the new age came that everyone was using smaller and more portable 35mm cameras, he rejected them by saying, "when photography went to the small camera and quick takes, it showed thinner and thinner slices of time, [unlike] early photography where time seemed non-changing. I like greater chunks, myself. Between 30 seconds and a thousandth of a second the difference is very large."  His photos are interesting compositionally, but I can't understand how he was able to achieve such clarity with the speeds his camera was getting.  Shooting still images is one thing, but shooting still people is a whole separate ball game.