Untitled (soft-focus portrait of Eugenie Stoll) c. 1940

Curator: The ethereal quality is striking. It's almost ghostly. Editor: That's a good way to start thinking about this. We're looking at C. Bennette Moore's "Untitled (soft-focus portrait of Eugenie Stoll)." Note the darkroom process—it's a photographic negative, dated to no specific time, sized about 7 x 5 inches. Curator: I'm drawn to the textures made apparent through the high contrast, revealing the materiality of the photographic process. The grain becomes so palpable. Editor: And that softness, that lack of sharp detail, almost feels like a deliberate choice to obscure—or perhaps to protect—a young woman’s image within a particular social context. Curator: You’re right, the soft focus is very particular, but I wonder about the role of the Kodak Safety film; maybe it had certain limitations. Editor: It also creates a sense of timelessness, outside the specificities of portraiture, which could be very important in considering societal implications. Curator: It makes us consider the labor embedded in photographic production. Editor: Definitely. This work provokes a dialogue about the power dynamics inherent in capturing and representing identity. Thank you for your thoughts. Curator: And thank you for your perspective.