Artist Captures Video Portrait of Daughter Once a Week for 20 Years

A Dutch artist has created a video documenting twenty years by taking a short video of his daughter once a week for twenty years. That adds up to 1040 different clips that combine to make an amazing piece that might leave you needing some tissue.

There is an old Chinese proverb about planting a tree. The best time to do it is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Well, that same idea goes for photographing your growing child or children. I wrote about how having all my family photos playing on a Chromecast helps me appreciate what we have and where we have been. If you don't capture images of your loved ones often, start now.

Filmmaker Frans Hofmeester has been filming video clips of his children for years. He then combines them in a time-lapse showing the amazing miracle a child going from a baby to an adult in a matter of minutes. I'm a proud parent of two boys and I can attest to how fast the time seems to fly.

I really like Hofmeester's use of a simple repeatable scene and looseness of the video clips. There is a great bit of character to them and the subject never seems to be bored with it. The accompanying music was by Grammy Award-winning Hollywood & Netflix film composer Mateo Messina and was made especially for this project.

Michael B. Stuart's picture

Michael B. Stuart is a photographer at Stu Stu Studio in Lewiston, New York. Besides shooting weddings with his wife Nicole his specialties include long exposure, abstract monochrome creations, architecture, and bokeh. Work has been featured online by Adobe, Flickr, Google, and 500px with the most popular photo receiving over 950 million views.

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18 Comments

That's just amazing. Really and truly an epic.

And I love the young woman's cross-eyed finale. Yes, the film brought tears to my eyes, but left me laughing.

That actually made me tear up a little bit. My daughters are four and seven, and it all goes by too quick.

I thought it was just me. And now mine are 30/32/34 where did the time go?

this is just amazing

I would also refer folks to Nicholas Nixon's work "The Brown Sisters... Forty Years". Nixon makes a portrait of his wife, Bebe and her sister's Heather, Mimi, and Laurie annually. The first was in 1976 and the series has continued uninterrupted through the last portrait in 2019. And yes, there are now more than 40 portraits in the series. The book was released when the 40th portrait was made.

I will have to check that out. Thank you for mentioning.

This is amazing and re-enforces, that content is king.
You can make a video where the colour shifts, a crumpled towel as a back drop
no fancy equipment but a video that draws in the viewer and has us entertained.
Brilliant.

Agreed. The imperfections make it perfect.

Beautiful baby, beautiful child, beautiful young woman, beautiful video, wonderful idea. It sure shows the fleeting nature of life and the way we change as we age, I hope he/ she carries on with the project to its ultimate conclusion.

Hint....watch it without the music......in some of the latter shots she looks quite sad. After watching it a couple of times with no sound I’m wondering if the effects of the difficulties of teenage life and its realities can be seen in her expression. I think if I were a you g person I would be feeling the same way given the crazy state of the world. It’s one of the few films that need no sound track as the visuals are strong enough.

Interesting point. Having the dedication to do a project like this also requires a willing model and some days may have been harder to get cheerful cooperation. Especially during the ages you saw it at.

With the aid of a simple time-machine, Frans Hoffmeester has created an accomplished emotional journey of his daughter told through 20 years of her facial expressions. The hair-clips, the mostly off eyeglasses, the many many smiles and rare sad faces spoke clearly about her but left me wanting to "press play", to follow the story unfolding behind some of the photos.

I have followed this compatriot for the past six years and it never fails to move me.

That is lovely, the braces, glasses and the blemishes all tell a story. Well done

My Daughter is 9months old now... this kicked me right in the 'feels'

Beautiful

Great! No wonder we are all so loveable.

I really loved it, the moods as she ages a little here and there. Those smiles though.

Thanks very much for the comments, everyone.