Photographer Took A Family’s Same Photo For Over Two Decades

Z ed Nelson, an award-winning British photographer, has left a mark on the art world with his realism and coverage of controversial issues.

He took a family´s photo in the same way for over 2 decades . All of the pictures were not only taken at the same time, but they were also taken under the same light, and against the same backdrop. The resulting pictures provide a breathtaking time-lapse that shows “only the miracle of growth and the changes of time and aging.”

Now, you can see the completed project and witness the growth of the family right before your eyes!

1991 The project began in 1991 when the wife of one of his friends was pregnant and he had the idea of taking a picture of the family as they grew over the years.

The very first year of the project was 1991, with the young boy being just an infant, and the parents being proud, excited and likely quite overwhelmed, new parents.

They would not only come to represent the modern family in many ways, but they would also come to represent just how much the world changed in a matter of two decades.

1992 This picture clearly shows how much people change in 52 weeks. While the family wore sneakers and casual outfits, this year the couple put on shiny shoes and more formal outfits.

It is clear just how much can happen in a year. While the parents don’t look all that much different compared to the surrounding years, the son is clearly growing at a very fast rate.

The parents were holding his hands and holding him up in the following year, but this year, it looks more like the parents are holding him up so that he can continue learning how to stand.

1993 Called the “terrible twos,” this age is actually a wonderful time when a child’s personality begins solidifying.

The couple has donned shorts and taken off their shoes, showing that they embrace what the child likes: going around barefoot. The little toddler is a baby no longer and doesn’t need help walking, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still help him jump long distances.

1994 The fashion trends of the day can be seen , though it might seem out of place for a parent to flaunt a rip in his jeans.

This image is a clear and honest representation of the nuclear family. The mother and father both seem to be very calm and comfortable, while the boy is obviously the most comfortable, wearing nothing more than a pair of shorts and some sneakers.

It’s a beautiful photograph where all three members of the family seem to be very connected with one another.

1995 The boy is wearing a shirt with the genie from Aladdin on it.

This photograph is far more somber than the previous year. The family seems to be disconnected from one another in this image and it is very striking for that reason.

Both the parents are wearing baggy pants, which were highly popular in the 1990s.

1996 The boy is five years old now , which means he is in kindergarten with all of the other kids his age.

The mother looks far younger than many of the other images in this series, with dark hair and a youthful face. As for the father, he too looks quite young and joyful. The son also seems to be quite happy and natural despite the fact that he’s staring right back at a large camera lens.

1997

Nelson stated that he never retouched the images to change anything about them. Instead, he is mostly focused on the balance and contrast or tone of the image. His reason was because his work focuses on real issues and should be viewed in their most honest and original versions.

1998 The Family presents a far different challenge, as he knew the people quite well but provides very little background information for the person looking at it for the first time.

What was so fascinating about that aspect is that for the first time in his career, the primary subject of the images was not what was really going on in front of the camera. Instead, the true subject of his “The Family” series was the passage of time and what it does to a family.

1999 In this picture, time has made its mark as the boy approaches his parents’ shoulders in height .

While Nelson was certainly interested in the lighting and framing of each photograph, he would not heavily direct his subjects on what to do. Instead, he would build some form of trustful rapport with the family and then simply observe and record what was going on in front of the camera naturally.

2000 The fact that the father’s got less hair is increasingly obvious as he displays the same signs of aging that inevitably affect all men as they grow older.

On the other end of the spectrum, the smiling boy is showing off the growing number of adult teeth that have sprouted out over the years. The mother has also aged in the decade, yet neither she nor her husband have lost their charm.

2001 This year’s image is quite important because it does mark the very first instance in which it seems as though the boy dressed himself for the photographing session.

As will be seen in the previous years, the boy typically was dressed in polo shirts and slacks. However, in 2001, he is very clearly wearing a t-shirt from a band that he was very likely a fan of.

2002 By this photograph, it becomes clear that this project is becoming less of an opportunity and more of a chore.

One definite thing of note fashion-wise in this image is the mother’s shoes. They look at though that are living plants, and while it seems hard to imagine this being fashionable, it actually was quite a popular look at the time.

2003 In 2003, clothes were still loose-fitting and low-cut jeans were all the craze for women’s fashion, elements that can clearly be seen here in the photograph. As for how the passage of time physically affects us, the boy has grown so much it will soon be a stretch to call him a boy any longer.

The mother dyes her hair so it doesn’t betray how she has changed over time, but her wrinkles do. As for the father, whose skin is also more wrinkled, it’s his receding hairline and graying hair reveal his age.

2004 The boy by now has begun to transform as he slowly becomes an adult. This will take many more years, yet he already appears to have lost much of his baby fat.

He is also starting to show a clear interest in his own personal style as he is wearing both a Nike t-shirt and Nike pants.

2005 The father’s once dark hair is now almost completely white. Even his eyebrows have long been gray. What had been started to show how the baby grew up originally ended up also being just as much about the parents.

As for the parents, they seem to be clearly entering their middle age.

2006 One thing that Nelson managed to capture in his images was a period of time in which the very fabric of human society was changing at a breakneck pace.

With The Family, he strove to prove the value of longer projects that take time to be fully realized.

2007 As for the young man’s parents, it is clear that both of them now need eyeglasses to help them overcome their worsening eyesight. The older we get, the less sharp our senses get.

While the parents have not seemed to age so much. One interesting thing of note is that the son is also wearing skinny jeans, which became highly popular during this period of time.

2008 The body language fascinates me between the growing boy and his parents. Indeed, beyond the personal change each individual in the photographs has undergone, their relationship to one another has also changed:

“At first the son stays close to his mother, then he gains independence, and then increasingly bonds with and even mimics his father. These aren’t quirks of the photographic moment, but cycles of the aging process clearly played out in the contact sheets.”

2009 The son, now a man, already has some facial hair to show off in the previous picture; in this one, it has only grown fuller. He appears to have fully grown, having surpassed his father in height.

The similarity between the mother and son’s cardigan suggests he has taken some of his style from the mother’s side. The father now has very little dark hair left as his hair has increasingly receded.

2010 The wrinkles in the mother’s neck have suggested her age for a time now. Now the father’s neck has aged as well.

From the way that the light reflects off the mother’s hair, it appears she no longer dyes it to color. As for the son, he looks to be a full-grown adult by this time.

2011 It was around the time that the 2011 picture was taken that Zed Nelson had received global recognition for a project he had created called “Love Me.”

That project focused on the harmful aspects of the $100 billion beauty industry. While his Love Me project had a very pointed and clarified point of view, The Family is far more open-ended. The Family does not go into the positives or negatives of family life, it simply depicts them.

2012

The images are able to depict exactly what changes about a family, as well as what does not change so that everyone who sees the images can focus on the very basic subject of these photographs, the nuclear family.

2013 The final picture of the series was taken back in 2013. For each session, Nelson takes over 30 individual shots so that he can pick an option that looks and feels as natural as possible.

One thing Nelson made sure to do was maintain the same background in each shot, as well as the arrangement of his subjects.

“This way there are no distractions, only the miracle of growth and the changes of time and aging.”

These pictures marks the end of a wonderful journey, a project that continued for over 2 decades. Taking a look at the first picture, it is amazing to see how much the family members have grown over the years. Things have certainly changed since they began this project.