Portrait of a Young Boy with a Duck Pull-toy c. 1940s

Wayne Albee made this photograph of a young boy with a pull-toy duck at an unknown date. It's interesting how he’s handled the light, making the scene feel like a memory, a hazy day at the beach. The tones are so close in value, a real study in subtle greys. It’s that way of seeing that I find compelling; nothing is too sharp, or fixed. Look at how the water seems to dissolve into the sky, and the boy, becoming a blurry figure within it. The duck is the clearest thing in the picture, its graphic shape anchoring the scene, a still point. It reminds me a little of the soft-focus photographs of the Pictorialist movement, but with a more personal, intimate feel. It’s like he's saying, “here’s a moment, but it’s also slipping away.” Art is always a conversation with the past, isn't it? And maybe with our own fleeting memories too.