Untitled (women dressed as queen and princesses) 1957

Editor: This is an untitled photograph by C. Bennette Moore of women dressed as a queen and princesses. It's an eight-by-ten inch print with striking detail in the fabrics. What stands out to you about the process of creating this image? Curator: The inverted tones force us to consider the materiality of the photograph itself. What chemicals, what papers were used in its making? The image stages royalty; however, the real labor is in the darkroom, in the alchemic transformation of materials to create this tableau. Editor: So you're saying the creation process is as important as the image itself? Curator: Absolutely. The photograph, as a commodity, obscures the means of its production, but looking at it in terms of labor and materials uncovers hidden social relations.