Untitled (woman seated on wicker porch chair with daughter in lap, dolls to side) c. 1955

This photograph, taken by Paul Gittings, captures a woman seated with her daughter, surrounded by dolls. The dolls, inanimate yet lifelike, echo the human figures, inviting us to consider the interplay between reality and representation. The motif of dolls appears across cultures, from ancient Egyptian burial sites to contemporary toy stores. These objects embody a desire to animate the inanimate, to project human qualities onto inert matter. Think of the ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion, who carved a statue so beautiful that he fell in love with it, and Aphrodite granted it life. In this photograph, the dolls stand as silent witnesses, reflecting the hopes, fears, and dreams projected onto them. They are vessels of memory, passed down through generations, each carrying its own emotional weight. The image evokes a sense of nostalgia, a longing for a simpler time when the boundary between reality and fantasy blurred. It reminds us that the power of the image lies not only in what it shows, but in what it evokes, engaging our subconscious on a deep, emotional level.