Black and White. Family Stills. Julia's Photographs

My niece Julia is a photography student at Corcoran.

This past semester she took a photographic series using a film camera that explored the generations of women in her family. As one part of that assignment, Julia and I spent a day at my father's house—time in the attic, time among orchids, time with birds, time with things I've made or loved.

I'm not the best photographic subject in the world. Indeed, I find it utterly unnerving to be in front of a camera—a reality that threatened to make Julia's project more challenging than it already was. Julia respected my discomfort. Deliberately took images that preserved my sense of self—hands, a face in shadows, a tilted chin.

Over Thanksgiving Julia shared a number of the images she had taken for this expansive project, and I thought they were remarkable. Yesterday I received a gift of several black and white images that Julia developed from our time together.

I love all the pictures. I share a few with you.