Dads and Daughters

By Donnell Collins

The book includes portraits of fathers with their daughters and essays written by the fathers on the joys and sometimes pains of being a girl dad. The seed for this project was planted in 2000 when I was a staff photographer for a local Newspaper. I was assigned to develop a "Father's Day" piece and decided on a story featuring dads and daughters. Fast forward twenty years later, during the stay-at-home period. I was looking for ways to stay busy, so I decided to revisit the project and feature it on Facebook. It was very well received and led to the birth of this project. From that point, "Dads and Daughters" was born. Like many fathers, I could have used a manual to raise my daughter. The essays and testimonies written by each of these fathers are simply a fun response to raising daughters. A special shout out to people like Pat Swanson and my favorite teacher in junior high, Mr. Peter Sheagren. Pat helped me move from selfishness to selflessness in her own quiet way. I will always love her for that. I loved her mission to serve the underserved. The late Mr. Sheagren. Long after graduation, we became friends on Facebook. When we got together to shoot his pictures, he insisted that I call him Pete. That was weird. Teachers are always old until you get old, and then you discover they were not much older than you in many cases. Speaking for myself. I gathered from this book that most fathers will have a different approach to raising daughters as opposed to raising sons. Most of the time, things will be the same with little deviation. There will be some pushback regarding this approach. Much of it, I agree with. But what has been innately placed in the hearts of fathers will never align with an ever-changing society. Our little girls will always be "our little girls."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F67LHW1W
• ISBN13: 9798316338078
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 102 Pages
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.4" x 8.3"