Untitled (full-length portrait of child standing, wearing hat and long striped dress) 1885 - 1893

Curator: This is an untitled cabinet card photograph by Edwin A. Bass, currently residing in the Harvard Art Museums. It depicts a full-length portrait of a child. Editor: It has such a somber feel, doesn't it? The sepia tones and the child's rather serious expression create a sense of melancholy. The stiff dress and the hat seem almost costume-like. Curator: Yes, the dress might indicate a specific social identity or even a symbolic representation of childhood innocence, now lost through the impersonal technology of photography. Think of how clothing defined one's place. Editor: I'm struck by the backdrop, which appears to be painted. The contrast between the manufactured setting and the child's real, material presence is quite striking, and of course the photographer's details are included on the card. Curator: Notice how the child's gaze, even obscured by the hat's shadow, meets ours. It's an invitation across time, a small human reaching out. Editor: And the physical card itself, the heavy paper stock, speaks to the labor involved in creating and possessing such an image. It was a commodity, a thing to be displayed and consumed. Curator: A tangible memory made visible, a symbol captured for generations to come. Editor: A reminder of the complex layers embedded within even the simplest photographic artifact.