The photograph that I will be discussing during this essay is a photograph that was taken in 1932 by Friedrich Seidenstucker, it is titled Untitled (Sleeping Mother with Baby Carriage), 1932-1936. Although the photograph has very high contrast, it is very subtle due to its subject. The baby, along with its assumed mother who is sleeping adds to the subtleness. The photograph was one of a series in which Friedrich photographed people sleeping. He became interested in photographing the comical in everyday situations. This is present in the photograph that I chose to talk about.
The photograph portrays a woman who is sleeping on a park bench with her baby in a stroller next to her. There is a nice balance to the photo because the mother is on the right while her baby is on the left. The equal balance is somewhat symmetrical, but not fully symmetrical. The depth of field is very shallow which leads me to believe that he had his camera set on a small aperture when he shot the image. Although I was not there when he took the picture, it most definitely does not look posed.
I think that the picture really does say a thousand words. It says something about the society and the world that people lived in at the time. The fact that this woman could trust that no one would steal her baby from her is somewhat amazing, considering the immense change in our current society. It says that people could be trusted in that day.
I think that this image is an extremely successful one, not only for its composition and technical qualities, but because it depicts an era that no longer exists. Whether or not it was intentional, I like the idea that a mother sleeping in public while her child is next to her has changed throughout the generations and is now something that would probably never be acceptable.