Mother and professional photographer Kate T. Parker invites us to relive the magical moments in our childhood through these heartwarming photos of her two daughters, Ella (8) and Alice (5). Taking inspiration from artist Norman Rockwell and his idyllic images of American Life, the Atlanta, Georgia-based photographer shoots her two young girls and their friends living their lives with a sense of wide-eyed wonder.
When we asked Kate what she hoped to capture in these photos, she told us this. “I want to preserve the fun and joy of their childhood. I want to show them the amazing, the mundane, the terrible and the great things that they did as children. Childhood is so fleeting and memories are unreliable, but images last.
“Teeth are lost and grow in an instant. What today is so much fun and awesome, tomorrow is ‘booooring, mom.' I want to be there to photograph the change. I shoot them daily and have shot them daily the last three years. I am so thankful for those images.”
The younger daughter Alice sports glasses in some of the photos and she's often seen with an adorable smile on her face. “Alice is chronically happy,” explains Kate, “loves to dance, make forts, laugh, snuggle and be with family.” Ella, the 8-year-old, on the other hand, is more independent or silently strong. “Ella is super high energy, thoughtful, a stellar public speaker and has yet to be embarrassed by anything,” the mom tells us. “She marches to the beat of her own drum.”
Most of Kate's photos of her daughters are shot or post processed in black and white. This gives the images a classic and timeless feel – like they could have been taken years, if not decades, ago.
UPDATE: We're elated to announce that Kate's photos of her children are one of 25 photo stories featured in our new book For Love, published by Chronicle Books! The official release date is March 15, 2016, and the book is currently available to pre-order at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indie Bound.