ON SEEING, A Journal #476
GROWING UP: Dimitri Staszewski
April 26, 2022
4 years and 27 years
I have studied of over 200 children from childhood into their 20’s. I began with some when they were newborns as is the case with Dimitri; others started about the time they could read and write. For all of them I made annual studio portraits and asked them to write answers to a series of questions, a kind of diary about their lives, their feelings, their hopes, their regrets.
My wife, Beverly Ornstein, and I have been good friends with Dimitri’s parents from before he was born. Seeing him each year and watching how beautifully he’s grown up has been quite special.
3 days old
4 years old
10 years old
12 years old
13 years old
14 years old
15 years old
16 years old
17 years old
21 years old
27 years old
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I am interested in everything about human development. I am fascinated by maturation, growth, emotional, educational and physical development. My exploration, a major 30 year odyssey, has been an adventure that has yielded riches beyond my imagining.
Permission was signed by the parents of each and every child every year, and by the participants themselves once they turned 18. In addition, we have now sent copies of all of their writings and edited photographs to the participants for whom I have finished all my editing and have received full permission from that group to publish and post. A few chose to use pseudonyms.