ARTIST
STATEMENT

In the opening chapters and final passages of life, our bodies transform viscerally and dramatically. The bloom of life—growth—is a constant miracle of early existence, obvious in every measure from infancy to early adulthood. Likewise, the transition from middle age to old age hits hard. It’s evident in skin and muscle, a change as conspicuous as summer passing into a reddened fall. 

There’s also a sweet spot in our lives, where the contrasts in physical appearance are slight for many, though the shift toward self-actualization is anything but. Subtle changes in our physicality belie the churning transformation within.

From about our late twenties to our late thirties, we experience a sort of primetime when we figure out who we are and what we want. We experience yearnings to do something, to build something, to create a family or career or both, to elevate our standard of living, to contribute, to find purpose or a path that makes sense to us, to find meaning. We long for authentic intimacy, relationships that have promise, and generative activity. We are simultaneously enterprising and contemplative. We are busy, but learning to shed self-absorption, often with children gracing our lives. Depression and optimism have their turns with us. We become more honest with ourselves. These years are a piece of our lifespan that feel like the substance of the plot in our personal stories, that stretch from conflict to climax. 

Engaging with this time of great internal change, at 28 years old, I photographed 28 of my 28-year-old friends. At 29, 29 29-year-old friends. At 30, 30, and so on, through this fall, all of us now at age 39. Many from the original cohort persisted each year. Several new individuals necessarily came on board with the increasing years to maintain the pattern. Some friends fell away. When I started the project, I sensed a turning point in my own life—maybe the force and balance of my life’s fulcrum. 

Nicholas Nixon’s The Brown Sisters and the BBC's Up series served as inspiration to me, but this project is different in that it targets a specific slice of lifespan when we experience physical equilibrium and drastic internal growth at the same time. The moments and environments within each photograph intentionally mark the personal journey of each subject. The collection of 402 photographs and their presentation via this site are intended to document these dichotomous prime years of life, this community’s evolution amid societal shifts, and the intimate, assembled personal narratives of those not quite Gen X and not quite Millennial. It’s the decade of wondrous duality: our faces almost ageless, our internal narratives transformed.