Sometime in the last year I was startled and amused by the resemblance between a self-portrait I did in college and those that my daughter does, often and almost obsessively, from time to time. Although a lot of people think we look “EXACTLY ALIKE,” Lily and I have pretty different features–just a similar overall configuration. Here are some pairings of pictures of the two of us as college-age or older; it would be interesting to do some combinations of childhood and baby pictures too.

Above: out to dinner, wearing hats, pictures taken by boyfriends. Coincidence?

Above: an early version of the infamous Lily self-portrait and my own version from back at Middlebury. And below: Lily, in a relatively current bathroom-mirror image, and one of my own taken with my first digital point-and-shoot in about 2004. Here’s to history repeating itself….?

All I can say is: I never really quite looked the way she does…and I’m glad she has that impulse to photograph her own very interesting face. There’s something about the impulse to document yourself that’s very human and revealing. I’ve been fascinated by the similarity between some of our attempts and will try to scan and post some others to show what I mean.

Advertisement