Untitled (young woman in formal dress posed sitting in chair outside house) 1959

Editor: This is an untitled silver gelatin print by Martin Schweig, showing a young woman in a formal dress. It’s striking how the negative space makes her dress almost glow. What can we say about this piece? Curator: Consider the labor involved: the photographer, the model, the darkroom technician. The image is presented in negative. This forces us to consider the means of production as a conscious choice, rather than a neutral record. Editor: That's interesting. So you're saying the process itself is part of the message? Curator: Precisely. The photographic negative as an artifact of labor and a challenge to the idea of photography as pure representation. I learned something new!