Untitled (girl on couch with doll) c. 1950

Editor: This evocative silver gelatin print by Lucian and Mary Brown presents a young girl with her doll on a couch, but it's a photo negative, which gives it a ghostly feel. What symbols or imagery do you see at play here? Curator: The doll, most obviously, acts as a surrogate, a stand-in for companionship, for the child's own burgeoning sense of self. But consider the couch itself—an ornate, almost theatrical stage. What does it tell us about the construction of childhood? Editor: That's interesting! It seems to suggest childhood isn't quite as innocent as we might assume. Curator: Precisely. The doll, the couch, even the pose—all contribute to a complex visual language of childhood performance, and the adult's observation of it. What do you make of the high contrast? Editor: Maybe it's about inverting expectations, and it certainly makes the image feel more unsettling! This negative presentation changes so much. Curator: Indeed.