Parlor, Prospect Harbor, Maine 1946

This photograph, Parlor, Prospect Harbor, Maine, was shot by Paul Strand, though we don’t know exactly when. It's this quiet peep show into a room, seen from the vantage point of another room, with the door ajar. It's as if the photo has already chosen a point of view for us, but is also asking: are we allowed to look? The eye strains to make sense of the shapes, the darkness of the room beyond contrasting with the bright light flooding in through the window. This contrast reminds me that photography is all about light and dark. A detail I find especially intriguing is the rug on the floor. It's almost as if it’s whispering to us in the form of a distorted Rorschach test. Strand's photos always feel like they’re looking for something, a stillness that is both real and constructed. Like Edward Hopper, he has this capacity to find the uncanny in the ordinary. It makes you think about what it means to really *see* a place.