Untitled (window display for swimwear) c. 1950

Curator: This photograph, by John Deusing, captures a window display for swimwear. It's a study in the construction of desire. Editor: It's intriguing. The mannequins and staged beach scene seem to promote a specific kind of leisure, yet there is also something sterile in the staged presentation. Curator: Exactly. Consider how images of idealized bodies reinforce capitalist narratives of consumption and aspiration. The swimsuits become symbols of a lifestyle, a privilege often tied to race and class. Editor: And the materiality! The arrangement of the props. The labor behind creating this fantasy, the fishing net, the palm tree, likely fashioned from materials meant to evoke, not replicate, the real beach. Curator: It’s a curated world, reflecting anxieties about authenticity, and the production of identity. Editor: Right, it asks us to look beyond the surface and consider the economic structures beneath. Curator: Precisely. It really makes you think about who is included and excluded in the aspiration to this lifestyle. Editor: The process of its making and the processes of its consumption are intertwined in this image.