I just read a post that I read last year. This is the 40th year updating the series, and a new photo was just posted. It is the type of series that you have to begin with the first, and go through them, before you get to the newest, the last. It is amazingly powerful.
FortyPortraits in FortyYears
Photographs by NICHOLAS NIXON
Why bring to your attention something that might make you cry (as I just did)?
It is a motivation to you to pick up your cameras. To get photos with you as the subject, as well as those you love. Make sure you are documenting the additional wisdom in your eyes, the endurance of the human spirit. You might not always like the photos of yourself taken today, but one day you will look back on a photo you might not have cared much for, and you will treasure it.
This isn’t the only such project, and I’m not suggesting you do the same, but I find it interesting, and arresting, even, to see the progression.
I just expressed this sentiment to a friend who is sad she doesn’t look 19 any more – twenty years later. In fact, here is exactly what I posted:
That’s the thing about time, isn’t it? We’ll never look as good as we did younger. And the sad thing is that when we were younger, mostly we wanted to ‘look better’ than we thought we did then, too.
A couple of years ago I made a decision in my own head. I realized that one day I would be 10-20-30 years older than I am right now, and I’ll look back on the photos from today, the ones where I’m not happy with my double chin, my stupid mole and skin spots, my hair when it has fallen from the wind or whatever – I’ll look back at those very photos, and I’ll think – I wish I looked like that now!
So, the decision was to try to look at those photos, the ones I’m too critical of RIGHT NOW, and to look at them through the eyes of my older self. What a difference that has made! Now I can focus on my big smile, my twinkling eyes, maybe just those two things, but that is what I do. My husband got some very unflattering OH MY GOD I LOOK SO FAT shots in the redwood trees. Well, I’ll still be using them. Because I’m going to choose to look at the TREES, and my face (not my stupid stomach) and I’m going to remember the trip, not tear myself apart.
Well, that is the goal, anyway. If I can hide or crop out my fatness, hallelujah!
Anyway, just saying what *I* am doing. But try it. And, I am telling you – YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
Along that line, AmandaYi Designs has a great new kit, Home is Where We Are. Make sure you keep in mind that YOU are what makes a house a home, and having photos of YOU in your home will be what makes it real.
Amanda Yi Designs 