My husband is an early riser. I mean EARLY. So on a Sunday morning, he’s culled through the LA Times, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal before I shuffle in for coffee. Parts of the paper are thrust in my direction, “You might like this article”, “Here’s something on photography”. This Sunday was no exception. Buried in a section of the LA Times was a great article on Jack Radcliffe and a series he’s been working on since the day his daughter, Alison, was born. The images are without judgement, and a wonderful journey through a young woman’s life. They are the kind of portraits that look underneath the surface. Jack’s work is all about capturing moments that don’t usually get captured.

“When my daughter Alison was born, in the tradition of a new parent, I began to photograph her, initially in a separate and private body of work. However, in the process of documenting Alison’s growth, I developed a passionate interest in human relationships and capturing intimate moments in the lives of family and friends. This affected my photography in a profound way. Rather than the isolated subjects of my earlier work, I became interested in the strength of relationships, oftentimes using personal environments to amplify those conditions.

My photographs of Alison, because of the nature of our relationship, are very much a father-daughter collaboration-Alison permitting me access to private moments of our life, which might, under different circumstances, be off-limits to a parent. The camera, early in her life, became part of our relationship, necessitating in me an acceptance, a quietness. We’ve never had long photographic sessions, but rather moments alone or with friends.

The significance of these pictures emerges in retrospect. I realize as I look at them, that I created a visual life story of Alison, capturing moments in her metamorphosis from infant to woman-her relationships with friends, her rebellion, and underlying it all, her relationship with me, a constant throughout her life. I wanted to photograph her in all her extremes, and to be part of these times in her life without judging or censoring. Only in this way would I have a true portrait of Alison.”