Brianna Capozzi’s Generation-Spanning Portraits of Biological Sisters

Brianna Capozzi isn’t immune to the more exasperating traits of sisterhood. “They steal your clothes,” she observes, detailing the universally accepted (if not exactly welcomed) lapse in sibling etiquette common among girls and women who inhabit these relationships. There’s a certain sort of irony in the statement when considering it in relation to her new monograph Sisters, a photo project she began more than six years ago, designed in collaboration with Jamie Reid and published by IDEA next week. Featuring 140 pages of sisters, half-sisters, and female twin sisters, the book’s protagonists are mostly depicted as nudes with little in the way of adornment. “I leaned towards keeping it neutral,” the photographer offers by way of explanation, referencing the layered intimacy that occupies each frame. “I wanted to go into their space and create a fantasy out of authentic reality.”

The follow-up to 2018’s Well Behaved Women, the cover for which showed Chloë Sevigny in a white leotard posing between a ruffle-hemmed curtain and a radiator, the new book builds on Capozzi’s tender fascination with women (she’s also shot Dazed cover stories with Selena Gomez and Lara Stone, Kim Kardashian for Skims, and Susie Essman for Marc Jacobs). “Having a sister is a superpower. It’s one of the most important things in my life,” she says, alluding to the project’s earliest genesis and foremost influence. “My sister Gabrielle and I are five years apart and very close. We’ve had many iterations of our relationship over the 36 years I have known her. Different than a best friend, there is an inherent trust and level of understanding.” A portrait of Capozzi and Gabrielle, then pregnant with Capozzi’s niece Emily, echoes this sentiment, anchoring the project in a fiercely personal way.

Below, in her own words, Brianna Capozzi details her celebration of sisterhood.

“I had just finished my first book Well Behaved Women, which was heavily focused on fashion, humour and surreal ideas: everything was very planned out, fabricated. When I finished, the pendulum swung and I wanted to make something raw and real; something that informed me instead of me fully informing the image.

“I was searching for what to do, and through my archive, I came across two sets of images. One set was Tessa and Grace. Tessa had asked to interview me in 2014 for a film and I asked to shoot her and her sister Grace in exchange. They are the first Polaroids I ever took, and I was always so drawn to them. The other set was of a group of 15 insanely beautiful women, part of a book club. My friend, who was a part of it, asked me to shoot them all nude. They have been close friends for over a decade, and the photos are incredible. I went back and forth on whether I would focus on familial sisters only, or include sisterly relationships amongst friends. Shooting more familial sisters, I realised the nuances and that I wanted to focus on biological and familial relationships.

“Coming off such a fashion-heavy focus [with Well Behaved Women], I knew I didn’t want to use current or vintage fashion, but I also wasn’t interested in shooting women in their own clothing – there is no fantasy in that, and I love to twist reality. So I leaned towards keeping it neutral and pure, void of any strong stylistic choices that would position the sisters as one thing or the other.

“For years I didn’t entirely understand what I was doing or why. There was a discomfort, showing up to people’s houses without a plan or the safety of clothing and props. I sometimes left feeling confused, then when the film came back, I always found many striking images; something was revealed in these women that I didn’t see in real time. It took until only a year and a half ago to really settle into trust. As an artist, it was a practice in letting go.

“I could have worked on this book for two decades. There are sisters everywhere! It’s obvious, but not something I was thinking about before. A lot of the women in the book are friends, and friends of friends. One group, of eight biological sisters, I found searching #8sisters. They had not all been in the same room in ten years. Then Phyllis and Geneva I met in Twinsburg Ohio, at the Twins festival. I shot a few photos of them and the next day they dodged me. I was confused but eventually they confessed something was eating at them: they were not twins but sisters. Geneva’s twin Jeanette had passed away in 2015, and Phyllis began accompanying her each year, dressed as Jeanette, because Geneva couldn’t bear to go alone. I was in awe of this story – it epitomised the extent of how sisters show up for one another.”

Sisters by Brianna Capozzi is published by IDEA, and is out on September 11.