I have been photographing Lily her entire life.

As mother and daughter, we are simultaneously separate and the same, two lives that were inextricably formed together.

Looking at her is like looking at a mirror, but not because I see myself reflected in it but because I see everything we can be both become.

Maybe it’s less of a mirror and more of a bright vision of a future for someone who means so much to me.

When my daughter was 16, she announced she was planning to pursue ballet just as I was beginning my next book project about dance artists.

I have always loved dance—I would watch performances from the balcony to see the patterns on the floor—and I was interested in capturing the choreographers and dancers out of context, not dancing, but simply being.

My daughter was one of my first subjects, making and interchanging patterns throughout our lives.