Liquid Detergent, Vancouver, British Columbia 1965

Curator: This image, Iain Baxter&’s "Liquid Detergent, Vancouver, British Columbia" from 1965, it’s stark, isn’t it? Look at the shelves packed with cleaning products. The brand names practically scream from the photograph. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: It feels very…clinical, almost like a study. The monochrome emphasizes the uniformity, but the rows of varied bottles and prices are almost overwhelming, giving an impression of abundant choices. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Abundance, certainly. But I also see a kind of shrine. These household products, photographed with such directness, become symbols of domestic life, of a society preoccupied with cleanliness and order. Notice how Baxter& flattens the perspective, almost as if we're viewing a devotional iconostasis. Editor: So, you see this almost as a sacred representation? But of what, exactly? Consumerism? Curator: Partially, yes. But also of a specific kind of idealized home, of a role women were expected to fulfill in the 60s. These bottles, with their carefully designed labels and promises of pristine cleanliness, reflect aspirations and anxieties of the era. Don't you find some visual puns or associations in the naming of the brands? Editor: Oh, Joy… Trend, yes of course, those must have some emotional context beyond cleaning power. It's thought provoking to consider everyday products like these holding so much meaning. I'd never looked at a supermarket shelf like this before. Curator: Precisely! Everyday life is dense with significance; all one has to do is decode the signs. It makes you wonder what future historians might make of our present supermarket shelves, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely! It reframes the way I’ll see these ordinary items moving forward.