Please look at this astonishing yearly photo-diary a father took of his daughter, Alison, from toddlerhood to young adulthood. I’m not sure what to think of it. Alison starts off as more than passably perfect. Around eight, she grows surly; begins to favor ominous Cleopatra eye-makeup at 12. When a series of boyfriends—some of the dead-beat variety—enter her portraits, things seem to go downhill. Soon, she’s smoking and picking at her fingernails in bleak laundromats. And you start pleading, “Alison! Back away from the paunchy red-neck guy! No, do not start dancing with him!”

As Friend-of-PBH Alysia Abbott (who turned me onto the photos) puts it: “This makes me want to keep my daughter protected and innocent, though I know I can’t….ah, the vulnerability of parenthood.” Three highlight shots:

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