Untitled (Woman floating on raft in pool) 1961

This small, undated photograph shows a woman relaxing on a raft in a pool, somewhere, sometime. It has that feel of slightly faded Kodachrome, where the blues and greens are still rich, but the reds have softened to a peachy tone, like time itself has gently blushed. I’m drawn to the way the mundane is rendered – the plastic ball floating in the water, the metal pipe, the bamboo fence. Each element is presented without flourish, yet together they evoke a specific mood, a kind of dreamy, suburban idyll. The surface of the print is smooth, but the image itself has a grainy texture, like a memory half-recalled. Look at the woman’s hair – it’s a mass of ginger curls, each strand caught in a halo of light, so that the photograph becomes a study of light and form. This piece reminds me of the work of John Divola, who also finds beauty in the overlooked corners of the everyday. Like Divola, this anonymous photographer reminds us that art is not just about grand gestures, but about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.