Untitled (girls playing with dolls) c. 1950

Curator: This small gelatin silver print, only about 3 by 4 inches, is titled "Untitled (girls playing with dolls)" by Lucian and Mary Brown and resides here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: The reversed tonality immediately creates a sense of the uncanny. It’s like looking at a memory, fragile and slightly disturbing. Curator: Absolutely, the negative image almost transforms the familiar scene of children playing into something dreamlike. The dolls themselves, laid out in what appears to be a crib, take on symbolic weight. Are they stand-ins for the girls, for lost innocence? Editor: The composition too, is striking. The strong diagonals created by the window and the cupboard divide the space, almost fracturing the scene. The textures, though, are fascinating to examine closely. Curator: Yes, and consider how doll-play, in general, has often represented societal expectations placed on women and girls, domesticity, and even motherhood. Editor: True, the doll itself is such a loaded signifier. Curator: This simple image, then, becomes a complex visual commentary on childhood and societal roles, intensified by the photograph's unique formal properties. Editor: Indeed, it's a captivating inversion.