Untitled (family portrait on lawn outside house) 1935

Editor: Here we have an untitled family portrait by Hamblin Studio. The photographic negative shows a large group posed outside a house. What strikes me is the clear labor involved in the creation of this single image; what do you see? Curator: I notice the material conditions immediately. The clothing, the setting, the very act of gathering this many people. It speaks to a moment of aspirational display, facilitated by the studio’s equipment and the family’s resources. Who was this for, and what did it mean to them, to make and consume this image? Editor: So, the photograph becomes an artifact of social and economic realities. Curator: Precisely. It's a record of production and consumption, a family's investment in a particular kind of self-representation. Editor: That's a great way to think about family portraits. Thank you.