Mennonite Child, Millersburg, Ohio 1984

Curator: Sheron Rupp captured "Mennonite Child, Millersburg, Ohio" in 1984. It is, quite simply, a color photograph. Editor: My first impression? Discomfort, certainly. The child's direct gaze combined with her posture, hands on hips, feels like a challenge. There's an almost confrontational aspect that arrests my attention. Curator: It's a superb rendering of light and shadow; observe how Rupp employs natural light to sculpt the figure and to create subtle tonalities within the otherwise simple garment. The geometric rigor of her attire and positioning are fascinating. The stark black strings against the pale fabric, the horizon line across her chest, and then the lines of the clapboard buildings behind her. Editor: Contextually, I find myself contemplating the subject's cultural environment, that of a Mennonite community. Consider the weight of tradition pressing upon this young girl, caught between the insular world of her upbringing and the burgeoning possibilities of the outside world. The severity of her expression speaks volumes. It brings to mind the debates around representation, and how easily we can project our own narratives onto images like this. Is this a critique? An observation? A celebration? Curator: Rupp has managed to capture an instance pregnant with anticipation. Note the muted palette, a limited array of gentle hues, which imbues the piece with an ethereal quality. What's particularly striking is the manner in which the planar arrangement creates spatial recession; our eye travels effortlessly from the girl's intense face to the buildings in the distance, linking subject to environment in a subtle, but potent, connection. The work reminds me a little of Gerhard Richter’s matter-of-fact renditions, actually. Editor: Thinking about its time, the mid-1980s, one might consider the prevailing cultural attitudes towards childhood, innocence, and the perceived threat of encroaching modernity on traditional ways of life. This photo becomes a register of these anxieties, visualized through a very particular lens. Who is she looking at and what are her hopes, desires? What will be her relationship with that history that she has inherited, for better or worse? Curator: On final inspection, it’s clear the power lies within the geometric composition married to tonal restraint. An eloquent articulation of tension. Editor: Absolutely. An unsettling document open for dialogue about the place of community, children, and representation itself.