Untitled (Older man wearing woman's shawl) 1958

Curator: Editor: So, this is an untitled photograph, simply titled "Older man wearing woman's shawl," and it was taken in 1958 by an anonymous photographer. It's strikingly domestic but the contrast of the shawl seems deliberately odd. What’s your take on this portrait? Curator: The key for me is in the everyday materials shown here: the furniture, the patterned wallpaper, the very *stuff* of a middle-class home. The image speaks of consumption and the aspiration toward comfort in the post-war period. Consider the shawl: it is the focal point. Its material extravagance clashes with the plainness of the sitter's attire and the ordinariness of the setting, and perhaps gestures to changing gender roles or a more complex understanding of identity through dress. Editor: I see what you mean about consumption, but is the shawl necessarily subversive? Could it be that it was simply available and served a practical function for the sitter? Curator: Certainly, that is one interpretation, but look at the presentation. Why photograph it? And why in this context? The material history is embedded; the shawl suggests not just warmth, but luxury and status associated with a certain feminine identity that’s displaced and complicated. Editor: So, you are less focused on the individual and more on what the items represent and say about that particular moment in time, right? The material's origin and how that affects meaning is a significant key, I can see that now. Curator: Precisely! Looking at how the material components and their crafting intersects with identity and societal norms – that gives us a powerful tool for art historical analysis. Editor: Thanks, that opens up the work to whole new levels of significance for me.