For 25 years, I’ve kept my Nikon around the house loaded with a fresh roll of Tri-X film, always ready to photograph my three children. I’ve recorded the simple moments…just everyday life. The children are gone now, in various stages of launching. But recently, I’ve been going through years and years of contact sheets for a family project, picking out the better shots and making a hi-resolution scan of the negative. An image I came upon recently is one of my daughter, Owen, dressed in a tutu as a little girl, trying on a piece of jewelry at her mom’s vanity. Just a small moment.
Everyone always says time moves too quickly. The camera is my way to slow it down, to stop time and preserve and celebrate the moment. Owen is 23 years old now and in graduate school, worlds away from that moment, but this picture takes me back to the day when sunlight streamed through our bedroom window and Owen could pretend to be anything she dreamed.