A Portrait Every Year
The girls choose what to wear. I bring the backdrop and a lot of patience.
A few years ago Claire asked me for something different. She didn’t want a family session. She wanted one portrait of each of her daughters, taken at home, once a year, for as long as they would let her.
So now, once a year, I bring a plain backdrop to their living room and the girls take turns. The only rule is that they choose what they wear. One year that meant a white dress and a handful of dried flowers from the garden. Another year it meant the yellow dress with all the ruffles, so we skipped the backdrop and used the dark hallway with the old painting.
These sittings are quiet. No running around, no silly faces on cue. I ask each girl to sit or stand however feels like her, and then we wait together until she forgets about me. Freckles, a flower pinned into her hair, a shoulder turned toward the light: every year they show me something new.
Claire hangs the prints in order up the stairs, so you can watch each girl grow taller from one frame to the next and see exactly when the hair went up, came down, and went back up again.
This year, once the girls were done, I talked Claire into sitting for a portrait of her own. She protested briefly, then sat down in the chair like she had been doing it all her life.
Thank you, Claire, for letting me be a small part of every year. I can’t wait to see what the girls choose next.