Untitled (Collaborators, St. Tropez, France) after 1944

Curator: Constance Stuart Larrabee’s photography captures profound moments, and her image, *Untitled (Collaborators, St. Tropez, France)*, taken sometime after 1944, certainly holds significant weight. Editor: It’s an immediately unsettling composition. The stark contrast between light and shadow emphasizes the raw emotional intensity of the scene—a group of women, their heads shaven, surrounded by onlookers. The monochromatic palette lends itself to a feeling of austerity and grim reality. Curator: Larrabee, embedded as a war correspondent, gives us insight into a painful social practice in post-liberation France. Women accused of collaborating with German soldiers were publicly humiliated, often by having their heads shaved. This photograph, then, is an index of a specific socio-political phenomenon. The act of shaving—its process and execution—speaks to the fragility of identity when faced with public shaming. Editor: The physical act depicted is brutal in its starkness. The shaved heads become a symbol, a raw, visual marker of shame and ostracization, revealing an effort to strip away identity and punish deviation from social norms. Curator: Precisely, the act of publicly removing the women’s hair wasn’t merely about appearance but a calculated means of control and social re-ordering. These collaborators, stripped of a physical marker of femininity, become symbols in a narrative about war, gender, and social retribution. Editor: It really makes you consider the composition too, and the photographer's arrangement to make us notice these formal elements. How Larrabee used light to cast heavy shadows, creating sharp distinctions that suggest social separation. Curator: I agree. By observing Larrabee’s technique and considering the photo's historical context, it urges viewers to consider ethical complexities surrounding acts of resistance, liberation, and collective justice. It challenges a straightforward narrative, asking us to examine the means of enacting change. Editor: This photograph reminds us how formal decisions and the weight of content intersect, offering a chilling visual testament to both human suffering and the human condition. Curator: An intersection worth meditating upon as we depart.