Backyard Gathering, Three Adults, Europe, 1950s

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Backyard Gathering, Three Adults, Europe, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Backyard Gathering, Three Adults, Europe, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-A5CA4F

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Somewhere in postwar Europe — the chicken-wire fence, the corrugated lean-to, the potted plants arranged with the determined optimism of people rebuilding domestic life from whatever materials were at hand — three people have stopped to be photographed in a backyard that does not quite look like a backyard yet. The older woman at center has dressed for the occasion in her good pearls and her best dark dress, which is what the 1950s required of a woman who wished to be photographed with dignity, regardless of whether she was attending a wedding or standing next to a shed.

The man on the right holds a cigarette with the casual ease of someone who has never read a warning label, because there weren't any. His blue shirt is open at the collar, which in continental postwar Europe read as relaxed rather than underdressed, and he has the self-possessed look of a man who considers himself the sensible one in the group.

The younger woman on the left is smiling at something just slightly off-camera, which is the most human thing anyone can do when told to stand still and look happy. The whole scene has the feel of a Sunday visit — the kind where the guest always stays two hours longer than planned and everyone agrees it was too short.

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