Untitled (small baby in long dress posed lying on couch) 1967

Curator: This photograph, simply titled "Untitled (small baby in long dress posed lying on couch)," is by Martin Schweig. The dimensions are quite intimate, only 6 by 8 centimeters. Editor: It's eerie, honestly. The negative's starkness combined with that enormous, antique dress... It feels like a tiny ghost is floating on that couch. Curator: The image evokes a complex range of historical issues around infant mortality, gendered expectations, and the construction of childhood identity. Infant portraiture was a common practice that also reflects anxieties around loss. Editor: Right, but to me, it also speaks to the strangeness of dressing a baby up like this, the artificiality of it all. Who was this for, the parents, or posterity? It makes me wonder what that baby thought of it all. Curator: Those performative aspects of family identity were deeply embedded in the cultural mores of the time. Editor: Still, there's something undeniably poignant about it. Like a butterfly pinned to a board. It's a little dark, a little beautiful, and a whole lot haunting.