The Persistence of Family

During the isolation resulting from the pandemic, family has taken on a new centrality. Our connections to our ancestors and our descendants often feel stronger than connections to those around us. I often wish my children knew my grandparents. These are portraits of my children as the product of a history of lives lived and intertwined, each effecting and shaping the other.

The images in this series are composites of my old family photographs, photographs I took of my children as they grew, and the New England landscapes in which my children and I grew up and became people. With these images, generations reach for each other across time. They are also, in many ways, self portraits. I exist in the tension of the space between those who came before me and those who will come after. Their longing makes real those things I hold dear. Ultimately, "The Persistence of Family" portrays the layered process of becoming, and the complex interweaving of time, place, and identity.

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Before the Waterfall
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Before the Waterfall

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Going to the Fair
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Going to the Fair

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Babydolls
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Babydolls

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Come Out and Play
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Come Out and Play

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Namesake
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Namesake

© Diana Cheren Nygren - The Two Boxers
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The Two Boxers

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Two Grandmothers
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Two Grandmothers

© Diana Cheren Nygren - When I Went Down Beside the Sea
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When I Went Down Beside the Sea

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Playing with Fire
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Playing with Fire

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Vogue
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Vogue

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Standoff
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Standoff

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Ladiesman
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Ladiesman

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Grown
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Grown

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Kiddie Pool
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Kiddie Pool

© Diana Cheren Nygren - Betwixt
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Betwixt

The Persistence of Family by Diana Cheren Nygren

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