Untitled (three children in front of curtain) c. 1950

Curator: This is an Untitled work by Lucian and Mary Brown, it depicts three children in front of a patterned curtain, and measures roughly 10 by 13 centimeters. The negative space really gives it an eerie quality. Editor: Eerie is the word! The flower image on the central girl’s dress feels so intentionally placed, almost like a talisman. What do you make of its symbolic value? Curator: It certainly anchors the composition, drawing the eye. The flower could represent innocence, or perhaps growth, set against the curtain's more chaotic backdrop. Editor: Or even resilience! Think of a flower pushing through concrete. Paired with the domestic space, I read it as a symbol of childhood’s tenacity, maybe even the future’s hope. Curator: Hmm, I am more interested in how the tonality of the negative itself creates an unsettling dynamic. In photographic negatives, light becomes dark, and it inverses our expectations of how a portrait should be presented. Editor: I think that is well put. It gives the image an almost ghostly character, as if we are looking at apparitions. Curator: I agree!