Detroit-born Nicholas Nixon graduated in American literature before deciding to become a photographer. He began photographing Boston from high vantage points with an 8x10 view camera in 1971 some of which were shown in the 1975 George Eastman House exhibition New Topographics. He got his MFA from the University of New Mexico and began to teach at the Massachusetts College of Art in 1974. He then began to photograph people, still using the large format camera. As well as his twenty five years of The Brown Sisters - available on line and as a book - he took another remarkable series of pictures of people on their front porches, normally in groups, achieving a remarkable fluency and naturalness with his 8x10 large format camera. Nixon continues to work using the 8x10 camera, printing by contact only to achieve the precision and subtlety he wants, particularly the delicacy he achieves in skin tones. Nicholas Nixon: The Brown Sisters, 1975
Nicholas Nixon: The Brown Sisters, 1975