[Haircutting in Front of General Store and Post Office on Marcella Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi] 1939

Marion Post Wolcott took this photo on Marcella Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi. Isn’t it cool how a photograph can be so still, yet capture so much life? I love the details in this picture. The light and shadow play so well together. Wolcott might have been thinking about so many things when she made this image. She probably wanted to show the world what life was like for people in the rural South. And maybe she also wanted to capture the sense of community and resilience that she saw there. The composition here is so casual, yet intentional, with all of the figures arranged along a single horizontal plane. There's a kind of unspoken tension between what is included and what is left out of the frame. Wolcott was an artist in dialogue with many photographers. Much like them, she wanted to use her work to make people think and feel. And just like those photographers, she left behind a body of work that continues to inspire us today.