I rarely saw kids in the shelter play. Shelter life is a serious game. This baby waits anxiously for his mama to take him to bed. Olive Branch Mission, Chicago. 1999

Curator: This is "I rarely saw kids in the shelter play. Shelter life is a serious game. This baby waits anxiously for his mama to take him to bed. Olive Branch Mission, Chicago" a gelatin-silver print created in 1999 by the wonderful Donna Ferrato. My initial gut reaction? Editor: My gut reaction? That this picture is a little bit haunted, or maybe a visitation of sorts. It’s just so full of stillness and those unblinking eyes looking everywhere. The little boy looks swaddled in hope—or maybe resignation? Curator: Donna Ferrato is so fearless; she throws herself into these situations and makes the invisible visible. It’s documentary photography, yes, but there's an urgency, an intimacy... and it hits you hard, no? Editor: Yes, she's capturing something deeply resonant about innocence and precarity. Visually, this dark corridor lined with figures feels like a subterranean river, an underworld in waiting, doesn’t it? The towel almost transforms the little boy into a Moses figure… waiting. Curator: Interesting... the swaddling. Yes. Because it seems these children are stuck in this kind of limbo. Looking closer, you see that light is trying to come through a distant doorway—which feels so heavy with possibility and the future… Editor: Precisely. The photo has this stark realism typical of the Ashcan school, yet the high contrast heightens the symbolic dimension, right? I think the artist manages to render this sort of…sacred reality... which makes the child stand in stark contrast to the gloomy backdrop. Curator: I do think there's some redemption in the work, an empathy so strong it breaks the surface of social realism to become this meditation, or call to action. Editor: Call to action is right. And perhaps the symbolism creates that tension that gives the photo its lingering power... Curator: Indeed. A reminder of shared humanity, unflinching honesty. We need more of that. Editor: Yes, definitely more light needs to make it into those shadowy doorways, one tiny towel at a time.