And the Tooles wonder too. As you peer at the portraits that Sills made and read what the Tooles have to say, the relationship seems inevitable and welcome. Because the book covers such a long time and because Sills has included her interviews with the family, it feels like a novel. I followed the lives of each of the family members with great care, even though it meant going back and forth from the images to the family tree that Sills provides. It would have been much easier to absorb the relationships if the picture captions had included them, or if the family tree had thumbnail images.
Sills is a thoughtful portrait photographer.
The many wonderful portraits in the book emphasize the hospitality of the Tooles and their acceptance of her. In some images, they seem amused or perhaps bemused by her. Rarely do they seem to forget she is there. The connection between the photographer and subject is palpable, an essential ingredient in portraiture. The composition is straightforward and classical.