Things Change
Heather, Mimi, Bebe and Laurie, 1975
Heather, Mimi, Bebe and Laurie, 2014
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I went to the St. Louis Art Museum on Sunday to see the Nick Cave exhibit (which was AWESOME) and while I was there, I remembered there was a photo exhibit I’d read about in the New York Times that I wanted to see — Nicholas Nixon: 40 Years of the Brown Sisters, so I stopped in.
I was so moved, I was almost in tears.
Nicholas Nixon took a photo of his wife (Bebe) standing with her three sisters (Heather, Mimi and Laurie) in 1975. Then he kept taking a photo of them, one each year, for 40 years. The sisters age, of course. But what really touched me about seeing this so beautifully and unflinchingly documented….is that I am the same age as Bebe.
So I looked young like that in 1975.
And of course, now I look old like that.
There’s no getting around it. And it’s nobody’s fault. We were both young and lovely once. And now we’re not.
And of course, it doesn’t stop there. Next year, we’ll be older. And then older, and older, and older.
And in forty more years….we’ll be long gone.
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The exhibit will be up through April 5. Don’t miss it.