Modern Fatherhood Gets Its Close-Up

Photographer Claiborne Swanson Frank explores paternal bonds in her newest book

Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL

Claiborne Swanson Frank's newest book — Eli Manning with his children.

“When I thought about what story to tell, I wanted to tell the modern story of what fatherhood looks like today,” says photographer Claiborne Swanson Frank, whose latest book, Father and Child (Assouline, $120), depicts dads and their offspring. The volume is a follow-up to the portraitist and former Vogue staffer’s previous release, Mother and Child, now in its ninth printing. “I’m the mother of two boys and I wanted to celebrate men the way I did women,” she adds. She found herself wanting to explore the ways fathers are contributing in their professional lives and leaving their mark, just as mothers are, and doing so while exploring their roles in raising children.

Swanson Frank, who spent her childhood in San Francisco and Napa and now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, included more than 50 dads in the new book, from NFL star Eli Manning to artist Rashid Johnson to Apple’s Alan Dye, each of whom was photographed at home. Winemaker Tim Mondavi, walking through his vineyards, and chef Christopher Kostow in a Napa Valley garden are here, as is actor Eka Darville, in an Ojai Airstream, and photographer Gray Malin and Gray Malin Enterprises CFO and COO Jeff Richardson at their Santa Barbara residence. Each is surrounded with their children, who are often in motion. “The fathers are nurturers, they were really playful. From running to wrestling, there was so much action and joy, which I loved,” Swanson Frank says of the shoots, which were held around the country in locations meaningful to her subjects. She ultimately found the connections between children and their fathers to be much the same as with their mothers. “But how you get to it can be different,” she says.

Her latest work, which includes interviews with her subjects, is dedicated to Swanson Frank’s husband and sons, but also to her own father, W. Clarke Swanson Jr. She found his reflections on generations of fatherhood to be profoundly moving. “Hearing him speak of his father, then thinking of what role he had in our family, and now thinking of my husband and how involved in the day-to-day he is, these roles keep changing,” she says.

Once she finished photographing her subjects stateside, Swanson Frank flew to Solomeo, Italy, to create portraits of Brunello Cucinelli and his family in the town the Italian designer has spent years restoring. She captured him with his daughters, leaning on his favorite car, a Jaguar, with busts of philosophers in the background. In an interview included in the book, Cucinelli notes he had to find his way into parenting after the birth of his children: “I would approach my daughters’ crib and speak to them as they slept, hoping they could hear my words. It was a deeply moving moment, because shyness prevented me from speaking to them about the important matters of life while they were awake.”

This is Swanson Frank’s fourth volume following portrait-filled works depicting American women, actresses on the rise, and mothers and their children. “I’m a lover of culture and of exploring who is defining these moments in time,” she says. Here, she trained her lenses on a new subject and found fathers ready to talk about their perspectives and who they are as parents today. She also found herself continually drawn to the dynamic between generations as they age. “It was so moving to see the teenagers with their fathers. Even with Carlo [Mondavi] and his father [Tim], the relationship never stops. I loved that generational piece,” she says.