Untitled c. 1930s

Caroline Whiting Fellows took this photograph sometime in the middle of the 20th century. I imagine Fellows was in a studio somewhere, wrestling with light and shadow, trying to bring something to life from the inanimate. There’s this playful tension between artifice and reality. I wonder, was she thinking about the role of appearances, about how we construct identities through the things we wear? The hat, perched jauntily on the mannequin’s head, and the carefully arranged accessories, speak volumes about aspiration and style. It reminds me a little of the Surrealists, who were also playing with the boundary between the real and the imagined. Fellows probably wasn't thinking that, but artists are always riffing off each other. What she's achieved here, I think, is a glimpse into a world where objects have a secret life, where a hat and a box can tell a story.