Untitled (Three children) c. 1965

This small square photograph captures three children at an unknown place and time, and by an anonymous photographer, so we can only imagine their intentions. The photograph feels direct and intimate. It has this home-made quality as if pulled from a family album; the artist is trying to capture the experience of seeing these children. They are rendered with deep attention to the subtleties of shadow and light, and you can feel the photographer exploring their relationship to form and representation. I wonder, was the photographer also a child? What do you make of the fourth child, there, hidden in the shadows? Artists are always speaking to one another in an unspoken visual language. Here, I feel the artist may have been thinking about how their work might resonate with viewers across generations. It invites us to reflect on the nature of representation and perception.