Untitled (woman with doll in baby carriage) c. 1940

Editor: This intriguing image, "Untitled (woman with doll in baby carriage)" by John Deusing shows a woman and stroller with a doll. It is a 12.7 x 10.16 cm photograph in the Harvard Art Museums. It has a strange, ghostly appearance. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The photographic process itself becomes the subject here. The negative space and harsh lighting force us to confront the materiality of the photographic medium. It’s not just about representation, but about the chemical and mechanical means of production, and the labor involved in image-making. Editor: That's interesting. So, the "error" becomes the subject. Curator: Precisely. Consider the social context – amateur photography, perhaps? It prompts us to question the value we place on flawless reproduction versus the raw process itself. Editor: I never considered the process itself to be so important. It makes me see it in a different light!