Untitled (young girl wearing period costume posed in elegant room at Greek wedding) 1948

Editor: This is an untitled photograph by Martin Schweig of a young girl in period costume, probably taken with a Kodak camera. It's interesting that the negative is still available. What can you tell us about it? Curator: I see a fascinating layering of labor and materiality. Consider the child's ornate clothing, likely hand-sewn, juxtaposed with the mass-produced backdrop and the industrial process of photography itself. Who made what, and what does that tell us about consumption and class at the time? Editor: That's a great point, I didn't think about the means of production like that! Curator: Examining the photo as an object transforms our understanding of it.