Untitled (young girl holding ball and young boy sitting on ottoman posing by curtained window) 1961

Editor: This photograph, Untitled, shows a young girl holding a ball and a young boy on an ottoman in front of a curtained window. It’s by Martin Schweig. What symbols do you see in this image? Curator: The ball she holds, a perfect sphere, is an ancient symbol of wholeness, perfection, and the self. The ottoman the boy sits upon suggests a stage, a platform. What roles are these children playing, for themselves and for us? Editor: That's a great point! I didn't think about the stage aspect. Curator: And consider the curtain, a threshold between worlds, obscuring and revealing. The image, in negative, reinforces this sense of an inverted, perhaps dreamlike, reality. Editor: This really highlights how everyday objects gain meaning through their symbolic weight. Curator: Indeed. It’s a poignant study of childhood innocence and the symbolic spaces we inhabit.