Untitled (baby girl sitting in bathtub) c. 1940 - 1963

Curator: Martin Schweig's photograph, simply titled "Untitled (baby girl sitting in bathtub)," held at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a seemingly mundane domestic scene. Editor: My first impression? It's like a ghostly apparition. The stark contrast transforms the innocence of a baby in a bathtub into something almost surreal, slightly unsettling. Curator: The inverted tones definitely shift the symbolic weight of the image. Water, a symbol of cleansing and purity, becomes something darker, more mysterious. Editor: Exactly! It plays with our cultural understanding of innocence. Is it critiquing it, holding it up to the light—or rather, the dark? Curator: It's a fascinating subversion, reminding us that even the most familiar images can hold complex emotional and psychological layers. Editor: Makes you wonder about the stories hidden beneath the surface, doesn't it? Even in the simplest snapshot, there's a whole world waiting to be explored.