[Indian Barber] 1860s

Curator: Well, the first thing that strikes me is how still it is. Both the barber and the boy seem frozen in time. What do you see? Editor: Absolutely. We're looking at "Indian Barber," a gelatin-silver print dating back to the 1860s. It’s the work of Willoughby Wallace Hooper and offers us a glimpse into a moment in time, carefully staged yet somehow raw. I love the textures in the weaving of that cot. Curator: Raw, yes, I'd agree. It makes me wonder about the stories, you know? What was life like for that barber, for that boy? Is that ritual a rite of passage? It’s a tender kind of portrait, almost voyeuristic, caught in that intimate space. I suppose there's that underlying tension with documentary photography and colonial gaze going on as well. Editor: There’s certainly a calculated arrangement to consider; note how the barber's dark clothing sharply contrasts against the white wall and the fair complexion of the seated boy, and the barber’s lean forward creating diagonal that runs along the spine and toward the back of the young man’s head which echoes in the direction of the weaving mat behind. A kind of triangular form connecting everything... fascinating, really. Curator: See, and that's the joy in all of this. I find that structure anchors all these swirling emotions for me; the stillness in what must have been constant, oppressive change at that time. Does that stillness also make you think, formalistically, about class and social order, in this portrait? Editor: Definitely. You’ve framed that brilliantly, Actually the geometry really helps. Acknowledging how Hooper uses his space provides the sense of place we recognize in "Genre painting", to make comment about life in British India. But still, what I see first is the balance, between darkness and light, between work and leisure, which, ultimately, complicates its representation. Curator: So true, a balance which almost romanticizes even this small slice of a colonized world and turns into this gorgeous, haunting work! I guess both speaks of technical mastery, while raising questions about our own viewing. Editor: Right. Hooper challenges us with what is, essentially, a tableau of simplicity loaded with complicated cultural meaning—and exquisite tonal precision.