Gropius Residence, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1938 c. 1938

Editor: This is Paul Davis' photograph, Gropius Residence, Lincoln, Massachusetts, from 1938. It's quite a stark image, very geometric. What symbols do you see at play here, giving the space meaning? Curator: The reflected flowers create a doubling, a visual echo. Consider what a home represents, a sanctuary, but also a reflection of self. Does the doubling emphasize the self, or does it suggest a transition, a liminal space between the interior world and the exterior one represented by the window? Editor: That's fascinating. I hadn't considered the reflection in that way. I thought it might simply have been a decorative flourish. Curator: Decoration itself carries cultural weight. The sparseness and the duplication seem very purposeful within a period of great upheaval, like a desire to create stability. Editor: So, the image is simple, but the symbols carry complex ideas! Curator: Precisely. Visual language tells its own story.